


100 G/t Prompts

by KieraElieson



Series: 100 G/t [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Any special warnings will be in chapter notes, Fluff, G/T, Gen, Loads of oneshots, Some strung together anyway, everything in between
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:39:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 100
Words: 53,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22124980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KieraElieson/pseuds/KieraElieson
Summary: I found a list of 100 G/t prompts on tumblr, and I want to write every single one of them.There’s one shots, and several series’s. Monsters, Giants, Fairies, Size-shifters, Borrowers, Humans, and loads more!
Series: 100 G/t [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876741
Comments: 1102
Kudos: 372





	1. Giant

**Author's Note:**

> Fantasy, Human AU

Patton was aware that he was living next to a giant, though he pretended not to be. He was also aware that the giant was watching him as he worked in his garden. But he pretended he didn’t feel the gaze boring into his back, because he also knew that if he turned and met the giant’s eyes, the giant would leave. Possibly forever. And the thing he wanted most was to somehow befriend the giant. 

He knew that the giant was lonely, because there was only ever one, and the giant kept watching him. He shoved aside the ideas of his neighbors, that the giant was watching him to capture and eat him. And it mattered that the giant was lonely, because Patton was lonely too. 

He’d been  cursed blessed by a fairy when he was young, and anything he tried to grow thrived. It was fun, being able to make the most beautiful and vibrant garden, and he grew all the food and loads more than he could ever eat on his own, but the townspeople were suspicious of him. They thought that if they ate his food they’d get cursed, and that if they talked to him too long, a fairy would come and take a fancy to them as one had to him. 

And then Patton had an idea. Maybe he could give the giant a present! Somehow. 

He pulled out his largest basket, which was nearly as big as he was, and started filling it with apples. He figured that, to a giant, apples could eaten in one bite, like hardish berries, and that it would be a good present. It took him a while, but he carefully stacked apples until the whole basket was full, careful not to bruise any. Then he tried to move the basket. It was much too heavy. 

Patton pouted at it, as if it would magically become lighter, but it didn’t. 

Well, time for his last option. Patton ran inside and pulled out an extra sheet, and a big bottle of ink. He poured the ink very carefully, so it wouldn’t just blotch the sheet, and spelled out  **For the Giant** in big letters. He laid the sheet out beside the basket, and just for good measure, made an arrow pointing to the basket. 

It was later at night when he heard it, a thundering step that made the ground tremble. Only instead of away from his house, like most nights, the step was closer. Closer than the giant had ever gotten. 

Patton peeped out the window to see the giant squinting at his sheet. It only then occurred to him that perhaps the giant couldn’t read.

“It’s for you!” He said, almost shouting, to be sure that he would be heard.

The giant turned to look at him, dark eyes wide and glittering. And then it stood up to its full height and turned away.

“No! Wait, please!” Patton called out. “Don’t leave!” Tears threatened to spill over his eyes. “I’m sorry, please don’t leave!”


	2. Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light sides are stuck in the dark side, and tiny for some reason AU, Pre-Sympathetic Deceit

“You’ve-- You’ve never made bread?” Deceit asked incredulously. 

Patton shook his head. “It was always just there, and it tasted pretty good, so I didn’t see a need to make my own.”

Deceit gave a wry laugh. “Well, it’s not the same down here. I’ll show you, if you want.”

Patton nodded eagerly. Maybe this would be something they could do that would help make a bit more peace between the light and dark sides. Things had been… tense, to say the least. 

Deceit grabbed him up in one hand, and Patton couldn’t help the terrified squeak he made. He was set down on a counter while Deceit removed his gloves and washed his hands. Deceit pulled out a bowl, and started adding ingredients, and mixing. Patton watched, fascinated, as the yeast bubbled up. Then Deceit added the flour, and various seeds, and mixed it all together with his hands, taking it out once it was all in one lump and kneading it on the counter. 

After several minutes of kneading, he put it back into the bowl, and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. 

“Here, why don’t you watch it, you can be my little alarm clock.” Deceit said, setting another bowl upside down nearby, so that Patton could climb on top and see into the bowl with the dough. “Let me know when it’s twice as big as that.”

Deceit washed his hands again and put his gloves back on. 

Patton stared into the bowl, his eyes starry as he could see the dough ever so slowly rise. Probably, if he’d been big, he wouldn’t have been able to see the change, it was so slow. But while tiny, the minutes sped by as he watched.


	3. Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Human AU, Extremely Unsympathetic Deceit

_ “You’re a monster!”  _ The voice echoed in his head as he woke up. Dee shook his head. They were wrong. He hadn’t been a monster then, just a child who’d been caught in an accident. Now? Maybe he was. But he hadn’t been a monster when those words had been flung in his face. 

He got up and got dressed and went to check on his borrowers. There were five, at the moment, but he hoped to find more soon. He really hoped to find a complete family. Two were father and son, and another two were twins, but he was really hoping for a family complete with mother, father, and child. Although he’d settle for a female borrower he could pair with one of his.

Dee scanned the room, not finding anything out of place, and went to make food. Once it was made he came back into the living room. He tapped on the lid to the first cage, which woke the inhabitant. 

“Come on, Remus, breakfast time.”

Remus tended to wake up slower than the others did, but once he was awake he was far happier than any of them. Dee set a small amount of food into the cage and shut the door again. Roman, Remus’s twin brother, was in the same cage, but staunchly refused to speak to him. 

Then Dee went to the second cage, which held Logan. Logan would be the most interesting borrower Dee had caught, if he would actually talk. Similarly to Roman, he refused to speak to Dee. Of course, he had cameras and audio recording equipment in the room, so he knew that Logan spoke frequently with the other borrowers, but it would be far more interesting to have his own questions answered. Logan was already awake, and glared at Dee as he deposited the food inside the cage.

As soon as he approached the third cage, the borrower inside rushed forward, clutching at the bars, with tears already streaming down his face. “Dee, please! Please let him out! Give him back. Please!” This borrower was Patton. His son, Virgil, had tried, and nearly suceeded, to escape two days ago, and in an effort to disuade this from happening in the future, Dee had put his cage in another room and covered it with a dark cloth. “I promise, I’ll answer any questions, I’ll do anything you want, just please give him back!”

Dee almost thought that the poor thing would go hysterical, the way it had been carrying on these two days. It was an unintended side effect, but an interesting one.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any more questions for you which you have not already answered,” Dee said. “And I can’t think of anything I would like you to do at the moment.”

“Give the kid back,” Logan said, sounding tired and resigned. “I’ll answer your questions, just let Patton have his kid back.”

Now this was an eye-opening revelation. Dee hadn’t realized just how strong the community bonds between borrowers were at this level. He’d known, of course, that at the family level borrower bonds were comperable to human, and at the species level they were far stronger, but he hadn’t tested this level yet. He wondered what he could get to happen by removing a different of them for a few days. Of course, he was willing to give the child back now.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” Deceit said, putting enough food for two into Patton’s cage. 

Then he went into the other room. It was a spare bedroom, and he was the only inhabitant of the house, so neither sound nor light came much into the room, and this was made stronger by the heavy cloth he’d draped over the cage. He had left a full bowl of water in the cage, and some food, but he hadn’t interected in any way with the young borrower since he’d left him in here. 

Dee pulled the cloth off, and the borrower flinched back violently, attempting to curl into a ball. He began crying as soon as the cage door was open, and when Dee picked him up the crying became very loud and obnoxious. Dee quickly took him into the living room, dropped him in the cage, and sat back to observe.

Patton immediately picked up the child and held him to his chest, also crying and rocking back and forth. Dee would have to take the audio recording later and analyze it to see if he was saying anything other than the typical ‘you’re alright’ ‘i’m here now’ nonsense. The other borrowers seemed to be responding emotionally to the scene. He’d have to obtain a larger cage, and experiment with putting them all together. 


	4. Peeking

  * •^*^••



**4**

**Peeking**

  * •^*^••



(Human AU)

Roman peeked around the corner. The human, Virgil, was sewing on his hoodie. While Roman was mildly surprised, since most humans didn’t sew frequently, he was more excited at the opportunity. There were pins by the dozen, and fabric scraps everywhere, and thread. Roman didn’t care much for the purple plaid pattern, but the squares of hoodie the human was cutting out, each one of those would make a small blanket, or a large towel, and Roman would be more than pleased if he could carry away two or three pins.

So he was waiting, his head barely peeking out of his hiding place, for the human to go to bed, hopefully leaving his table a mess when he went. Or maybe just to fall asleep while working. It would be more dangerous, but since when had Roman shunned danger?

Finally the human left. Roman waited a few more seconds, just in case, and then darted out. He climbed the table quickly, and started gathering the scraps of fabric and spearing them onto a pin. He had one pin going one way, and one going the other, holding the bundle of fabric together. He used some thread to tie the bundle to his shoulders and pulled out his hook to climb back down, only to see the human standing in the doorway. 

Roman froze.

The human didn’t look surprised. He must have been standing there a while. Roman felt his heart sink down to his boots and start quivering. The human still didn’t move, just watching. Roman sent a glance down. There was no way he was going to reach the entrance to the wall before the human could grab him. 


	5. Hands

  * •^*^••



**5**

**Hands**

  * •^*^••



(Human AU, Continuation of 4, Peeking)

Virgil watched, entranced, as a tiny man stole his fabric amd two of his pins. He didn’t mind, certainly. He’d give them up in a heartbeat for the chance to watch. So he did watch. He wished he had his phone to take a video, but it was left on the table. He’d turned back to get it when he’d seen the little man. 

Suddenly the man turned and saw him. Virgil didn’t move a muscle. The man was clearly terrified, and Virgil didn’t want to make it worse. Then the man started looking from the table to the floor and then back up at Virgil. 

After a few minutes, where Virgil hoped that he’d made it clear that he wasn’t moving, the man got out a hook and string, and started climbing down from the table. From his position, Virgil could see the hook start to slip on the curved edge, and from the man’s terrified glance upward, he’d felt it through the string. Still Virgil didn’t move, until he just knew that the hook was going to fall off, the man was going to fall and get hurt. 

Virgil lunged suddenly just as the hook came off the edge of the table, cupping his hands underneath the man. The man stared up at him in terror, gasping for a few seconds.

  
L-look, I-I’m sorry for-for taking your stuff,” the man said, his voice quiet and shaking almost as much as his body was. “Y-you can have it back. Let me--let me go. Please.”

Virgil was still astonished at the feeling of such a tiny body in his hands. It took him a few seconds to process what the man had said. “Oh. No, you can keep it,” he said, intending to set the man on the floor. 

“Let me go!” The man suddenly burst out, squirming. 

Virgil had to cup his hands tighter around the man to avoid getting stabbed with the pins. “It’s ok. It’s ok.” He set him down on the ground and took a step back, crouching down to not loom over him. “I let you go.”

The man’s whole face twisted up in confusion. He opened his mouth, as if he was going to ask a question, but then suddenly turned and raced away as fast as his legs could carry him, dissapearing into a hole in the wall. 

Virgil had known that he had mice problems, really, nothing seemed to fix them, but he’d never have guessed that anything else was using the mice holes.

“Bye,” he said too late, waving his hand at a wall that couldn’t do anything in return.


	6. Borrow

  * •^*^••



**6**

**Borrow**

  * •^*^••



(Human AU, continuation of 4, Peeking, and 5, Hands)

“No, Pat, I won’t let you.”

“Please, Roman! I’m almost as old as you! I can help borrow too!”

“You are  _ not  _ nearly as old as me, you’re five years younger!” Roman protested. “And Mom left me in charge. I said no.”

“Roman, I don’t want to stay in here all day.” Patton pleaded, reaching out to grab Roman’s sleeve. “I want to help, and I know how. You said you taught me everything.”

“Everything except experience,” Roman corrected.

“I can’t get experience without actually doing it, though.” Patton protested. “Please. Please let me go out.”

Roman cupped his hands around Patton’s face. “You’re my baby brother, Patton, I couldn’t live with myself if anything ever happened to you. No. You may not go out.”

Patton pouted, his eyes tearing up slightly. “But I’m not a baby anymore. I can still be your baby brother but, I’m not a baby, and I don’t want to be treated like one.”

Roman sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Patton brightened up quickly.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel like I was treating you poorly, I’ve never meant to do that, Patton. But my answer is still no. I won’t let you try to borrow from the human. He already saw me once, and he’ll be on the lookout more than any other humans, and that makes him more dangerous.”

Patton wilted. “I understand.” A tear slipped out from one eye, nearly breaking his brother’s heart. “I still don’t like it, though.”

Roman pulled Patton into a hug. “I can live with that as long as it means you’re safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll tell you what, I loved this chapter. I never liked the ‘you’re my baby (usually girl, but sometimes sibling)’ with the angry ‘I’m not your baby anymore!’ So I wrote my own. You can disagree, and even be upset about it, without being mean to one another.


	7. Tinker

  * •^*^••



**7**

**Tinker**

  * •^*^••



(Fantasy, Human AU)

The human seemed to be a tinker. Although, unlike most tinkers Logan had seen, riding along on their jingling carts, this one was pulling his. 

“You must be desperate,” Logan commented.

The human jumped, and looked around wildly until he saw one of Logan’s legs, and followed it up to his face.

“I thought it was well known to humans that I lived here. Most choose to go around the forest.”

The human was shaking. “I-I hoped I wouldn’t run into you.”

“Then am I correct in assuming you are trying to reach Arthia?”

The human nodded. 

“May I ask why? I was under the impression that those of the tinker trade were generally successful in Endris, yet you seem to be barely scraping by, and are trying to pass through to Arthia quickly, and in a foolish manner, I might add.”

The human glanced back at his cart, and then back to Logan. Instantly Logan’s curiousity was piqued as to what might be inside the cart. 

“I have-- a friend in Arthia. I’m trying to reach him.”

Logan considered for a moment the various differences between Endris and Arthia that he had observed. Surely, while a friend may well be involved, that was not the only reason this human would dare to pass through his woods.

“I insist you come with me,” Logan said, intending to keep the human nearby until he had puzzled it out. “I will offer you my hospitality for the night.”

“I-I’d rather not-” the human said tremulously, pulling again at the cart. 

Logan set a hand in front of him. “I insist. You will stay in my house this evening.”

Suddenly another voice spoke up, far more shaky and weak than the first human’s. “L-leave h-him alone, gi-iant.”

Barely managing to be on his feet, but still pointing a wand at him, a witch was standing at the other end of the cart. Judging by his pale complexion and the bloodied bandages over much of his body, Logan assumed that he had been inside the cart on a sickbed.

Suddenly the key difference between Endris and Arthia stood out to him. While Endris was wary of magic, and had many superstitions, Arthia was wildly accepting of it. 

Logan raised an eyebrow at the feeble witch. “I wish no harm to either of you. I will take you to my house, share my dinner with you, and aid you on your way in the morning.” He knew that humans, and especially witches, were always looking for ‘catches’, so he continued. “In return, I wish for news on Endris. I myself have not stepped foot in the country in many years.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, the tinker is supposed to be Patton, and the witch is Virgil. :)


	8. Adapt

  * •^*^••



**8**

**Adapt**

  * •^*^••



(Human Au)

“Technically, this is an experiment to see if it is possible for you to adapt,” Logan said. He gave Patton, who was riding along in his hand, a soft smile. “But I am excited by the mere possibility that we could be the same size, that, that you might be no longer subjected to all these tests.”

He set Patton on the platform and took several steps back. 

“Please move behind the partition, Logan.” The lead scientist said through the intercom.

Logan stepped back, and waited impatiently as the process began. 

And then it was over. Logan was the first to enter the room. He was not prone to displays of emotion, but with Patton standing before him, smiling and holding his arms out, Logan found himself incapable of doing anything but stepping into the offered hug.


	9. Flight

  * •^*^••



**9**

**Flight**

  * •^*^••



(Virgil shrinks when Thomas tries to repress his anxiety AU)

Virgil was Anxiety. Fight or Flight. Usually, he did that for Thomas, but sometimes, Thomas shoved it all right back at him. It was never very pleasant, being stuck down in a much tinier body, and forced to deal with 100% of the fight or flight by himself. But this time was the worst one he had yet experienced, because this time he wasn’t in his room. 

He was in what was about to be a heated argument with Roman, when he suddenly found that he was actually as small as he was feeling. And also absolutely terrified. Because not only was Princey looming over him, in a position of far more power than usual, but he was also angry at him. 

There was a brief second in which Virgil felt an incredible inclination to scream, and then he ran. He ran, ignoring the harsh falls down the last two steps, and ran towards the kitchen, since it was the opposite direction from where Roman was standing. 

The floor shook beneath him, and he looked back just in time to see the hand coming for him. It closed around him, and Virgil did the first thing he could think of, he screamed, and then he bit down hard. 

Roman’s cry of surprise seemed infinitely louder, but at least he let go. Virgil ran again, darting underneath the first thing that offered any kind of shelter. He hid underneath the edge of the cabinet, tucking himself back into the corner. 

He stayed there for several minutes, struggling to fight back a panic attack, when a massive shoe suddenly came into the kitchen. 

“Kiddo? Are you in here?” Patton called. 

Virgil tried to step back, but he was already as far back in the corner as he could go. 

“Virgil, I want to help you.” Patton said. “Where are you?” 

Virgil considered. Roman must know that he was in here. Why he would send Patton Virgil didn’t pretend to know. But, if he had to be found by someone, he’d prefer Patton to Roman, or even Logan, any day. Of any of them, Patton was the least likely to hurt him. 

So, despite his knees threatening to give out on him, Virgil stepped forward. “D-down here,” he said. 

Virgil flinched back when Patton knelt in front of him. Even kneeling and bent over, he was just so huge. 

“Oh, kiddo, what happened?” Patton asked, reaching out for him. 

Virgil froze, letting Patton pick him up. If it was Patton, he would be more likely to be hurt by accident, if he tried to back away, and Patton made a sudden grab. If he just let Patton do what he wanted, Patton would probably be slow and gentle. So he let Patton pick him up, and didn’t protest when he was carried into the living room. 

Patton set him on the coffee table, and sat down on the ground. He rubbed a finger over Virgil’s head and down his back. 

“Are you alright?” Patton asked. “You gave Roman quite the scare. He thought he’d hurt you.”

“I-I’m…” Virgil didn’t really know what to say. He wasn’t hurt, much, but he certainly wasn’t fine. “Tiny,” he finished lamely. 


	10. Possession

  * •^*^••



**10**

**Possession**

  * •^*^••



(Jack and the Beanstalk AU)

“That is my possession,” Logan said firmly. 

The tiny person froze, dropping the amulet that was half as large as they were. Logan was slightly impressed that they could lift it. 

He picked up the human in one hand, and the amulet with the other. The human struggled and squirmed, but Logan had no problem holding him. 

“Unhand me, fiend!” The human demanded. 

“You were attempting to abscond with my property not ten seconds ago,” Logan retorted. “I demand you tell me why.”

“And I refuse.” 

“Bold words for someone being held in my hand,” Logan said, raising an eyebrow and tightening his grip slightly. “I’ve had far too many humans sneak up here in an attempt to steal my possessions. Clearly I’ve been too lenient.”

The human now looked appropriately scared, but still wasn’t giving Logan the reason why he’d come. 

Logan glanced around, looking for something suitable. “I suppose, as you find it acceptable to take my possessions, I shall have to find it acceptable to take possession of you.”

He opened a jar, and dropped the human into it. He poked a few holes into the lid before screwing it on. 

“Once you are ready to explain to me the reason for your theft, I will consider letting you out.”


	11. Mouse

  * •^*^••



**11**

**Mouse**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5 and 6)

Patton held his ground. He mustn’t let the beast know he was scared. But the mouse had no such problems, and kept coming. He held a pin in his shaking hands, but he didn’t know how to use it like Roman did. 

Finally his resolve broke and he ran. The mouse was in their house, so he ran out. He ran along the passageways, not daring to look behind him. Finally he saw light ahead of him and nearly wept for joy, running straight out… into the open. 

He froze. Several inches away from the wall. He was out on open floor in a human house, and there was a human, staring right at him. 

It was too much. 

Patton crumpled to his knees and burst into sobs. 

“Oh, hey, don’t cry,” the human said. 

Patton just cried harder. “Ihit’s too late! I-I— there was a mouse, and it wou—wouldn’t leave! And I ran, but you-you’re a human! I-I’m talking to a human!”

“Ahh…” the human started. “I won’t tell anybody. I won’t tell anyone ever that you talked to me. Does that… help?”

“No!” Patton sobbed. “Cause you’re still a human! A-and I’m not supposed to go out of our house! But there was a mouse, and I didn’t know what to do!”

“I-I’m sorry,” the human said. “I should have dealt with the mice by now.”

Patton scrubbed at his eyes. “ ‘s not your fault. It’s just a dumb mouse.” 

“Yeah, but I’m supposed to make sure things like that don’t get in my house.” 

Patton shuddered, wondering if he was included in ‘things like that’. Well, he might as well get it over with. “Are you gonna hurt me?”

“What? No! I wouldn’t dream of it!”

“A-are you going to keep me then? Like a pet?”

“No, I wouldn’t do that. I’m— I’m really sorry I scared you. I scared the other one too. But I’m not going to hurt you, or keep you, or anything. You can— you can go home, if you think the mouse would be gone.”

Suddenly Patton was scared again, and it had nothing to do with the human. “It’s probably not. Oh, it’s going to eat everything we have! And, and Roman will have to fight it when he gets home, and he’ll be worried about me. And, and that dumb mouse will probably wreck our whole house!” Patton pounded his fists against the ground, frustrated and angry and scared, and worst of all he didn’t know what to do about it. 

“If you’re worried about food, I don’t mind giving you some.” The human offered. 

Patton spared a glance upward, surprised to see that the human was sitting on the ground instead of standing. “I-I’m not even supposed to talk to you— I don’t think I can…”

“Can I offer to let you stay until the mouse is dealt with?”

“No—yo-you’re trying to trick me. You’re trying to keep me here anyway.”

“I’m not! Really, I won’t touch you. I’ll stay all the way over here. Hell, I’ll leave if you ask me to.”

Patton, compulsively, muttered, “language…”

The human’s eyes widened, and he started chuckling. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. I won’t do it again. If—do you want me to leave? I’ll go hole up in my room and leave you alone here if you want.” 

But, Patton was surprised to find, he actually didn’t want the human to leave. He’d never talked to a human before. And this one… well, he seemed nice.

So he shook his head. “You can stay. I’m Patton.”

The human smiled, and his smile seemed even happier than his laugh had. “It’s nice to meet you, Patton. I’m Virgil.”


	12. Risk

  * •^*^••



**12**

**Risk**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6, and 11)

When Roman got home he immediately flew into a panic. Their home was all but destroyed, mice tracks left everywhere, and, far worse than any damage to their home could be, Patton was not there. Roman found neither body nor blood, so there was a possibility that he’d just run away, that he wasn’t hurt. But Patton didn’t know his way through the tunnels, didn’t know where to be careful of his step, didn’t know where to be quiet or else a human would hear. 

Roman dropped his pack. He took only a small amount of food and his hook, and raced off down the tunnels. He had to find Patton, he had to. 

It took Roman hours to search all the tunnels, but he still didn’t find a single trace of Patton. He was heading back to the ruined house, in the hope that Patton might have returned. He was exhausted, and tears streamed down his face as he grew more and more hopeless. 

And then he stepped on something, and looked down. He’d been about to cross one of the entrances into the human house, and was being careless enough that if the human had been watching he would have surely been seen. On the ground, shoved into the hole, was a paper. In the dim light, he could only barely make out what was written on it. 

_ I have your brother, he fell asleep waiting for you. Please come get him, he’s been worried.  _

Roman dropped to his knees in shock and fear. That… that monster had his baby brother! And he wanted him too. 

It was a risk, no, it was almost a certainty that if he went to get Patton that he would be captured as well. But, there was also a chance that he could get Patton out, could get him free. And Roman was willing to do anything for that chance. 

He took a deep breath, wiped his face clean, pulled out his hook to use as a weapon, and stepped out through the hole. 


	13. Shelter

  * •^*^••



**13**

**Shelter**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11, and 12)

Patton woke up pretty quickly when he heard Roman yelling. 

“Where’s my brother?!”

“Hey, hey, he was asleep,” Virgil said, trying to be calming. 

“No, you tell me where he is!” Roman demanded. 

Patton scrambled up the edge of the pillow. “Ro, I’m over here! I’m fine.”

“Patton!” Roman ran to the pillow and grabbed his arm. “Come on.” 

“Wait, Ro! He said we could stay!”

“He said we could stay— are you hearing yourself?” Roman yelled. “The day I accept shelter from a human is the same day a human kills me.”

Patton pulled back at his arm. “Roman, please, just wait.”

“No! Patton, we have to get out of here!” Roman tugged on his arm again, and now it was getting to be painful. 

“He hasn’t even moved!” Patton protested. 

This time Roman actually turned to look. Virgil hadn’t moved since Roman came out of the hole. 

“He hasn’t touched me. Not once. He gave me the pillow, but he just scooted it over. Roman, I believe him. And our house isn’t safe right now.”

“No. I don’t know what the human said to you but humans are  _ never  _ safer than the walls. Even if the walls are bare.”

“I want to stay.” 

“You what?! Patton, there is no way I’m letting you stay here with a human.”

“Stay with me. Please. We can stay here tonight, and go rebuild in the morning.”

Roman looked at Virgil, who still hadn’t moved. 

“I can leave, if you want,” Virgil offered. “I can just hang out in my room, or I can even go ask if I can stay with a friend, and you can have the whole house.”

“I don’t believe it.” Roman said. “Why would you do something like that?”

“Well, you guys kinda, live with me, so, it seemed like I.. ought to?”

“That makes no sense!” Roman fumed. “You’re a human!”

“Being human doesn’t make me a monster.”

“No, it makes you worse. At least monsters are honest.”

“I haven’t lied to you, not even once,” Virgil said, crossing his arms over his chest and getting visibly annoyed. 

“There’s no way for me to know that,” Roman insisted. 

Virgil huffed. “Fine. Whatever. I’m going to bed. Leave if you want.”


	14. Darkness

  * •^*^••



**14**

**Darkness**

  * •^*^••



(Borrowers, but humans know about them, AU)

Inside the walls, the darkness was warm, and comforting. Hums and vibrations from appliances and air conditioning filled it, and made it seem almost alive. But out here, on the table, it seemed much quieter, and somehow darker, and it wasn’t at all pleasant any longer. Not to mention the cold that was settling down into his bones. 

Virgil shivered, hugging his knees closer to his chest. It was a horrible idea. He’d said so right from the beginning. But of course no one believed him. 

Ever since humans had found out that borrowers existed, Logan had been interested in them. Virgil had watched him as he researched feverishly, and had been the first one to hear him say he wished he could catch one. 

Looking back, Virgil should have seen it coming the instant the idea was suggested. In the house with Logan was a family of four, who had at first accepted Virgil kindly, provided that he make his own home somewhere else in the house. But then Logan grew more and more suspicious, and the close calls became more frequent. Tensions were high, and Logan seemed almost ready to tear into his own walls to get proof of the borrowers. 

The idea was to let one of them get caught on purpose, so that the others could escape. Virgil had never once liked it, but somehow hadn’t made the connection that they meant him until they’d slid down the ropes, taking his down with them. 

This one table was impossible for a borrower to escape without a hook. It was hard to get on top of even with a hook. It was smooth and glossy, with the legs ramrod straight and separated from the edge by a curved lip. There weren’t even any chairs near it, though Virgil had never learned why. The drop would certainly break both legs, if it didn’t kill him, so jumping was out. 

All he could do was wait, and hope his death would be quick and painless. 

Finally, and still too soon, the bedroom door opened, and Logan’s eyes fell on Virgil almost immediately. Fear stabbed his chest, and he curled up tighter. Running wouldn’t do any good. 

Logan knelt by the table, watching Virgil intently. 

“Are you stuck?” He asked, and his voice was quieter than usual. 

Virgil just curled in on himself tighter, his muscles sore from having been held so stiffly all night, and now being forced even tighter. 

“You’re stuck, aren’t you?” Logan pressed. “You’re clearly terrified of me, so there’s no reason to stay there if you could get down on your own. How did you get up here?”

Virgil wasn’t going to answer. He knew he didn’t have to follow the rules anymore, now that borrowers were almost common knowledge, but they’d been drilled into his head so carefully when he was young, he couldn’t just abandon them. 

“Would you like me to help you down?” Logan asked. 

Virgil did  _ not _ trust the offer. The human wanted him to feel indebted, so he could demand something of him. Or something. At the very least he was going to pick him up. Virgil shuddered as the thought passed through his mind. 

To his surprise, Logan got up and left. 

But it didn’t matter. He was still stuck here, until Logan figured out whether he’d kill him or just keep him captive. 

It was several minutes later when Logan came back, holding a… towel? It was an old, ratty towel, that had definitely seen better days. Logan held one end up to the edge of the table for some reason, and then nodded, leaving and taking it with him. He came back a minute later with a pair of scissors and started snipping at the towel. 

Virgil had never seen Logan do something so strange, and wondered if he was becoming slightly unhinged. He hadn’t… messed with him at all? He asked questions occasionally, but he didn’t seem to be mad when Virgil didn’t answer them. 

Finally he held up a… ladder? He’d snipped his towel into a borrower sized rope ladder? 

“Allow me to get some tape, and then you will be able to climb down. I’ll leave the ladder, in case you have need of it in the future.” 

Logan taped one end securely to the table, and left the room. Virgil quickly climbed down and escaped to his house. The other borrowers had long gone, and they’d taken most of his stuff as well as all of theirs. 

Virgil was miserable. But more than that, he was utterly confused. 


	15. Argument

  * •^*^••



**15**

**Argument**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12, and 13. I must really like this one, huh?)

“Roman,” Patton asked, rather hesitantly, since he already knew what Roman was going to say. 

“Hmm?” Roman was working on sealing up the cracks in the wall of their house. With a lot of effort, and a large helping of luck, they’d been able to put it back up, though in several pieces. The mouse hadn’t come back, but that was probably because they didn’t have any food at the moment. 

Patton handed Roman the next piece of paper, and Roman started racking it down with a bit of glue. He’d managed to borrow a mostly-used glue stick, and it was proving invaluable in rebuilding their house. 

“I want to go back.” Patton said quietly. 

It didn’t register for a second, but when it did Roman turned to Patton with a stormy frown. “To the human?”

Patton shrunk back slightly. He never liked it when Roman was mad, but it was even worse when it was directed at him. “Yeah.”

“Patton, what— why?”

“Well, he seemed nice, and lonely. And I want to go out and do things on my own. And…” Patton didn’t want to mention this, because he really, really, didn’t want Roman to feel bad about it, or like he wasn’t enough, but, it was one of his reasons. “And I’m hungry.” 

Patton cringed at the pain he could see all over Roman’s face. “Roman, wait, I changed my mind-“

“No, just— just go.”

“Roman, please-“

“What?!” Roman snapped. “You aren’t happy with me taking care of you, but you’ll go to a human! What else do you want to say?” 

“Roman, no! That’s not what I meant at all!” Patton pleaded, tears falling from his eyes. He reached out to Roman, but Roman jerked his arm away and stormed off. 

Patton dropped the supplies he had been holding, and tried to follow Roman. 

“Don’t!” Roman snapped. “Leave me alone, Patton.”

“Roman, I’m sorry. Please don’t leave.”

“I’ll be back tonight. Go to your… human.”

“Please, Roman!” Patton begged, tears slipping out freely. 

But Roman still walked away. 


	16. Trust

  * •^*^••



**16**

**Trust**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14)

Virgil didn’t exactly  _ trust  _ Logan. But it couldn’t be denied that Logan hadn’t touched him yet. Virgil still nearly had a panic attack whenever Logan spotted him, and he did spot him frequently. Virgil wasn’t any less careful than usual, but somehow, ever since the first time when Virgil was stuck on the table, he’d been seen more and more frequently. 

Logan frequently spoke to him, whether or not he was able to see him, but Virgil never spoke back. There had been a few times where he’d offered a nod, or a shake of his head, and had received food and supplies in return. 

But this was… more than usual. It had been cold recently, and the few bits of cloth that Virgil had borrowed or accepted just weren’t enough. He’d suffered through the cold, but now he was also sick. He stumbled out of the wall, his warmest blanket wrapped around his shoulders. 

Logan, of course, noticed Virgil immediately. “Are you alright?”

Virgil shook his head. “I’m sick. I need help.”

Logan’s eyes grew wide, the effect heightened by his glasses. “O-of course!” He said, his voice louder and much more excited than usual. 

Virgil cringed back, this had been a mistake. Excited humans were never good. 

“Do you have a fever?” Logan asked. “What kind of sickness is it?”

Virgil didn’t want to have to talk again, but it did seem like the type of question that would have to be answered. “It’s in my head, and chest, and I think I do have a fever. And it’s freezing.”

“I see. Wait there, I will return shortly.” 

Virgil sat down on the counter and huddled under his blanket. It was only a few minutes before Logan came back, setting a large pad on the counter, and winding a plush blanket into a nest on top of it. 

“You can sit here. This is a heating pad, and I’ll turn it on for you. It will take me a bit longer to figure out what kind and how much medicine to give you, but I’ll start working on that right away.” 

“Thank you,” Virgil said, climbing into the nest and pulling it around him so he was blocked from view. As it it actually made him any safer. 


	17. Protect

  * •^*^••



**17**

**Protect**

  * •^*^••



(Fairy AU)

Patton would do absolutely anything for his boys. Anything. He had three boys, triplets, but not alike in anything other than face. And he loved them to pieces. 

So when the human caught one of them Patton rushed out to his rescue. 

He could hold humans to promises, and he made the human promise that he would leave his boys alone and never tell a soul about them. Of course, the human wanted something in return. They always did. But Patton was willing to give it to protect his boys. 

But he hadn’t realized just how  _ lonely _ he’d be. He was stuck inside an old birdcage, even though his promise bound him to stay anyway. It was cold, and silent, and dark, and  _ alone _ . 

The human was asleep, and Patton didn’t want to chance waking him up, so he muffled his sobs in his sleeves. There was no way he’d be sleeping tonight. 

He couldn’t help thinking of home. Of Virgil, who would be hugged close to his side, half for his own benefit, and half for Patton’s. Of Logan, probably bringing home something new and interesting, and wanting to know everything Patton had ever heard about it. Of Roman, who had started putting on plays all by himself as soon as he’d figured out a little illusion magic, and who would be expecting a rousing applause. 

It made it just a bit brighter, as long as he focused on them. But the instant he remembered that he was cold, or let his eyes open, he was crushed by the present all over again. 


	18. Close

  * •^*^••



**18**

**Close**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 17)

He was so close! Just inside the human house. And yet he never came out. Virgil waited on the windowsill, keeping himself invisible for much longer periods of time than he ever had before. 

The human had put iron all around his door and the inside of the windows, as if Patton would try to escape. Virgil knew he couldn’t, and he’d heard Patton tell the human that he couldn’t, but the human still kept him in a cage, and put several other safeguards in place to stop Patton from leaving. But unfortunately, it also made it so none of the brothers could get inside. 

Roman had hurt himself several times trying, and had finally admitted defeat, for the moment, and was trying to take care of his brothers. Logan hadn’t left the house since Patton had been taken, his eyes constantly rimmed with red, and his wings starting to droop from the lack of self-care. Virgil was still watching. He hadn’t found a way in yet, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to. 

And then the human opened the window. Virgil jumped back, concentrating very hard to not let his sudden fear melt his invisibility. But the window was open, just a bit. Virgil darted through the crack, careful not to touch the human’s hands, and it was just in time, because the human was laying a string of iron nails along the sill, and then shut the window. 

Virgil was trapped in here now. But it was better than being trapped out of here. He waited, struggling to hold the illusion so long, until the human left the room. Then he dropped it. 

“Dad!” He whispered, flying right up to the cage. 

“V-Virgil? Virgil!” And Patton started crying. 

Virgil tugged on the latch. “Help me get this open.”

“I-I can’t leave, Virgil,” Patton said, scrubbing at his eyes. 

“Maybe not, but I’m coming in there.” Virgil gave the latch a hard yank, pulling with all his weight behind it, and it squeaked open. Virgil darted inside, tackling Patton in a hug. 

“I missed you so much!” Patton sobbed. “Wait, wait it isn’t safe here.”

“I don’t care.” Virgil squeezed tighter, burying his face in Patton’s neck. “I don’t care one bit.”

“I do care.” Patton tried to push Virgil away. 

“No!” Virgil said, no longer caring about being quiet. “You made him promise. He can’t do anything to me. So I’m not leaving.”

Patton melted into the hug, sobbing again. “A-are Logan and Roman ok?” 

“They’re ok. Roman ran into the door a few times, but he’s fine now. And… Logan blames himself for what happened.”

“No,” Patton said. “It’s not his fault. Not at all. You tell him that. And tell Roman he has to stay safe, and not run into doors.” 

“I will. I’ll find a way so we can all come see you. I promise.”

Patton ran his hand through Virgil’s hair. “You don’t have to promise to me. I know you will. You’re my precious, precious boy.” Patton kissed the top of his head and then let go. “Now go back home. I don’t want the human to find some way around the promise if he sees you.”

“I’m coming back, Dad.” Virgil felt his chin tremble, and tears pricked at his eyes. He didn’t want to leave yet. 

“I know you are. I love you so much, Virgil. All three of you, I love you so, so much! You make sure to tell Logan and Roman.” 

“I will.” 

Patton practically had to push Virgil out of the cage. But now, how was he going to get out of the house?


	19. Cooking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deceit is pre-sympathetic, which means he will be nice later, but right now he’s still mad.

  * •^*^••



**19**

**Cooking**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 2, pre-Sympathetic Deceit)

“Can I help make dinner too?” Patton asked. 

The bread was now in the oven, and starting to smell delicious. 

“That sounds easily possible,” Deceit remarked dryly. 

Patton tried to give puppy eyes, though he didn’t know how effective it would be while he was this small. “Please? I’m sure there’s  _ something  _ I can do.”

Deceit frowned, but it was the thoughtful kind of frown. “Like what?”

And then it was Patton’s turn to frown in thought. “Well, what are you making?”

“Probably spaghetti.”

“Oh…” there wasn’t much about spaghetti that Patton could do. The box of noodles was far too big. He couldn’t move a pot, or stir safely, or add the much larger food items. “Well, I can at least be the taste tester.”

Deceit shrugged, and picked him up. Patton let out a squeak, and shut his eyes. He hadn’t thought he was scared of heights, but he was being held over very high heights quite frequently now. Deceit set him down on a shelf that was close to his own eye level, and overlooked the stove. 

“H-hey, kiddo?” Patton asked, after backing up a bit to stay away from the edge. 

“Hmm?” Deceit cocked his head slightly to show that he was paying attention, even as he started rummaging around for pots. 

“You think you could maybe tone it down on the grabbing and moving me? Or at least give me a warning?”

“No, I could never do that.” Deceit said immediately, in a dry, sarcastic tone. 

Patton didn’t believe that this was the truth, but he also didn’t think it was one of those complete opposites, either. 

“It’s just— it’s pretty scary, especially all of a sudden.”

“And you don’t think you deserve anything scary?” Deceit hissed, his tone sharp and caustic. 

Patton shrunk back, suddenly painfully aware of how small he was in comparison to Deceit at the moment. “I-I don’t know what you’re mad about.”

“You don’t? Really, Morality? What could I possibly have to be angry about?” Deceit said, moving on with the dinner preparations. 

Patton bit his lip. He’d… well he’d hoped that they were trying to put the past behind them and get along now. “So… you… this is—revenge? Were you the one who made us small?”

Deceit let out a long, tired sigh. “Yes, of course it was me. I have every bit of forethought and power required to do that. Just… just shut up so we can make dinner in peace.”

Patton’s face creased in worry. For all the steps forward he’d thought he had made, it seemed he’d managed to slip back behind them. 


	20. Open

  * •^*^••



**20**

**Open**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 17 and 18)

The door was open. With all the care the man had put into locking down his house, he’d left the door open as he left the house. 

Virgil zipped out and flew straight to his home. 

“Logan! Logan Logan Logan!” Virgil nearly bowled Logan over. “The door’s open! Come!”

He grabbed Logan’s wrist and was tugging him out of the house before Logan responded. 

“The… door? Virgil, what— Dad!”

“Yes, Dad! Now fly so I can stop carrying you!”

Logan wasn’t as fast as Virgil, but once he started carrying his own weight, it wasn’t long before they were opening the latch on the cage Patton was in. 

Logan stumbled into his arms, sobbing. “I’m sorry. Dad, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry!”

Patton held him tightly, dropping kisses into his hair. “Logan, hey, it’s ok. I’m not hurt. It’s not your fault. I love you so much.”

Virgil zipped back out to search for Roman. It took him several minutes before he found him fighting a wasp. 

Virgil grabbed his wrist. “The door’s open! Leave it!” He turned them both invisible so the wasp wouldn’t follow, and tugged Roman towards the house. 

It was only moments later that Patton was surrounded on all sides by his sons. The group hug and murmured reassurances didn’t stop until they were all startled by the thud as the door closed. 

Virgil instantly made them all invisible, despite that being a significant strain on his limited magic.

The human was distracted, hissing something about ‘darn wasps’, and Patton herded his sons out of the cage, telling them to go home. 

When the human came back into the room, only Patton was left, sitting on the floor of the cage, though the cage door was open. 


	21. Trepidation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ran away from me. Hopefully not in a bad way.

  * •^*^••



**21**

**Trepidation**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 9)

Virgil was tiny. And unfortunately, it didn’t look like that would be changing anytime soon. He was also scared, though, when was that ever new? He was prepared for the worst scenario, which was the other sides taking advantage of his new size. In that scenario, he still didn’t think that Patton would hurt him, not on purpose, anyway, so he was going to stick as close to Patton as he could, and he was going to force himself to behave, at least until he turned back. 

If Thomas had just given him a  _ few  _ minutes of warning, he could have escaped to his room. Just one or two minutes. But that hadn’t happened. And Roman now knew he was tiny. Was probably telling Logan too. At least he was with Patton. Surely Patton wouldn’t let them hurt him, would he? 

His ears started ringing loudly, and the already heightened anxiety he was feeling only got worse, forcing him to his knees to gasp for air. 

Someone was yelling, or maybe it just seemed that way. He couldn’t hear them clearly enough to make out words. The table he was on shook. His breathing got even faster and harder to control as his mind kindly supplied the image of one of the sides tripping and falling directly on top of him. The table shook again, really just a tremble. And again. And again. It was a pattern. 

4, pause, 7, pause, 8. 

He knew this pattern. It took him several minutes to align his breathing with the pattern of the tremors he could feel through the table. Slowly his hearing came back. Someone was breathing slowly along with the pattern for him to follow, and Patton was murmuring soft encouragement. Once his breathing was under control again, which took a while, he looked up to see Logan tapping at the table near him with his fingernails. 

Virgil jumped up and ran to hide behind Patton’s hand. Even if Logan did help him out of a panic attack, who knew what was going to happen next? 

“Are you alright, kiddo?” Patton asked. 

Suddenly Virgil’s mind jumped to focus on Patton. What was he going to do? Would he pick him up again? Squeeze too tight on accident? Virgil could die so easily from either of them, even if they didn’t mean to. 

He shook his head and pulled up his hood. 

“What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” Patton asked. 

Virgil shook his head again. 

“I believe he is feeling overwhelmed. If it will help, I will leave shortly.” Logan said. “But first, do you know the reason why this has happened, Virgil?”

Virgil nodded miserably. 

“Do you know how to reverse it?”

“It’s just… time. And Thomas.” Virgil said, his voice hoarse. 

“Thomas? Should we bring you to him?” Patton asked.

“No, wait—“ But it was too late. Patton had sunk out, Virgil in hand, and appeared next to Thomas. 

Thomas was trying to figure out what to do for his next video, and was browsing through analytics of the previous videos to see what worked and what didn’t. Virgil had been giving him too much anxiety, and arguing too much with Roman. That’s probably why Thomas had shut him down so forcefully. 

Virgil ducked down in Patton’s hand, hiding behind his fingers. 

“Patton?” Thomas said, looking up from the computer screen, visibly tired. 

“Hi, Thomas!” Patton said cheerily. “Virgil shrunk, and he said you could turn him back.”

“That’s not what I said!” Virgil protested, not looking up at Thomas when Patton set him down beside Thomas’s laptop. 

“I shrunk you?” Thomas said wonderingly. 

Virgil broke his defensive posture to look up at Thomas, just as surprised as he was. “You didn’t know?”

Thomas shook his head. His eyes were wide, and Virgil could practically hear both him and Patton rolling the word cute around and around in their heads. “Is it because I decided to ignore you?”

Virgil shrugged, dropping his gaze again. 

“Does it shrink you all the time?”

Virgil shrugged again. 

Thomas let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair. “I can’t deal with anxiety right now.”

Virgil winced, shrinking in on himself. 

“But that doesn’t mean that I want you to be shrunk, or to ignore you.” Thomas let his head fall back and stared up at the ceiling, thinking. “Why don’t you hang out here? Next to me. You can be my desk buddy. Once I’m done working, I’ll see if I can turn you back normal again.”

Virgil shrugged. 

“Well, I’ll leave you to it, then,” Patton said, sinking out. 

Pretty soon, Thomas had gotten back to work. Virgil sat down near the edge of his keyboard and watched. 

“You can’t do that again. They hated it. Everyone will hate it if you do it again.” He said. Couldn’t help from saying. It was his job, after all. 

“Nope. No. Nu uh. You can’t do this right now. Not inside my head or outside.” Thomas said. 

Virgil bristled slightly. It was his  _ job.  _

“You’re my desk buddy right now, try and be encouraging.”

“Like  _ Patton? _ ” Virgil asked. No offense against Patton, but Virgil was not him, and refused to act like it. 

“No. Not like Patton. Like Virgil.” Thomas said, making eye contact. “I know you’re capable of being nice.”

Virgil wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be flattered or offended. He grumbled, turning back to the screen. 

It took him a few minutes of muttering under his breath before he found something. “Well, they liked it when you sang. Maybe it wouldn’t be horrible if you did that again.”

“There! See, I knew you could do it!” Thomas praised. “Thank you, Virgil. I will be singing in the next video then. Here, have an m’n’m.”

Virgil accepted the m’n’m, though it took him a while to figure out to bite it. His mind was assailed with all the ways Thomas could mess up the singing in the video, but he kept them to himself. He received several more m’n’m s before Thomas was done working, though there was no way he could eat them all. 


	22. Startle

  * •^*^••



**22**

**Startle**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 10)

Roman was startled awake when the jar was picked up. He blustered for a few seconds, something along the lines of ‘you fiend’ and ‘unhand me’ before a sudden look downward made his sleep-addled brain abandon him. He slumped to the bottom of the jar, nervously looking up at massive eyes. 

The giant took the lid off the jar and tipped Roman out onto an empty table. 

“Now, will you explain to me why you found it necessary to attempt to steal my possession?” The giant asked, setting the medallion on the table. 

“It’s the legendary medallion,” Roman said, even though he probably shouldn’t. “It’s supposed to bring wealth and good luck on the whole kingdom of the one who has it. The fact that it’s guarded by a giant was just supposed to warn off cowards, or so I thought.”

The giant frowned at him, and at the medallion. “I do not see how it could be legendary. I only received it a few months ago. How would you know whether I had it?”

“While I would love to explain the prophesy to you,” Roman said, “I’m finding myself a bit captured.”

“And you would exchange your knowledge for freedom?” The giant said, though with a dangerous note of… something, Roman wasn’t sure what, in his voice. 

“Yeah, I would do that.”

“I do not believe you are in a position to be making such deals,” the giant said. “I can very easily put you back in the jar for another day. Perhaps your stomach will get through to you where your brain cannot.”

Roman scrambled away from the giant hand. “No, no, wait! Stop!”

The giant held back. “Then you are willing to tell me?”

It was his only bargaining chip. He didn’t want to waste it. “I-if I do, will you let me go?”

The giant frowned down at him. “I’ve let too many humans go. Clearly it is not in my best interests to do so again. I can wait a day.” His hand started moving towards Roman again. 

“Wait!” Roman had hunched over, cowering away from the giant even though it was the last way he wanted to present himself. When he wasn’t caught in a massive hand he looked up. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I tried to take your medallion. I’ll—I’ll spread tales of your great fearsomeness. Please let me go.”

“I’d would rather be completely unknown by humans,” the giant replied. “If you spread your tales I’ll have human armies trying to slay me.”

“Th-then I won’t say anything!” Roman tried. 

“That would bring us back to our first problem. I do not intend to let any more humans that try to take my possessions go free. It is merely coincidence that it happens to be you that is the first one.”

Roman very nearly slumped to the ground. He couldn’t think of anything else he could use to sway the giant. 

“Now, do you intend to tell me how you humans keep finding me, or shall I return you to the jar?” 

Suddenly, Roman had a dangerously reckless burst of courage. “Are you going to kill me then?! Cause I’ll never tell you even if I starve!”

The giant blinked at his sudden outburst. “No. I do not intend to starve you. If you truly do not intend on telling me I’ll find something for you to eat eventually. I believe that being left alone in a jar with little food would be rather uncomfortable, however, I can certainly arrange a better place for you if you decide to tell me about this prophecy.” 

And then the giant picked him up and put him in the jar again. 


	23. Dash

  * •^*^••



**23**

**Dash**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13, and 15)

  
  


Roman dashed down the tunnel. Of course. Of-flippin-course this would happen now! Now when he was spent from being mad, and wasn’t paying attention, and didn’t have any kind of weapon. The rat—not even a mouse, a rat— chased after him. 

And of course he was paying more attention to running than looking where he was going, and didn’t seem the broken part of the vent where there was a hole large enough to fall through. And of course he had to step right there. He hurtled through the air, utterly confused for half a second, before one leg hit the bed before any of the rest of him, letting out a sickening snap before his vision abruptly went black. 

  * •^*^••



Patton had gone back home a while ago, and Virgil was walking into his room, intending to lay in his bed and fiddle on his phone while he had time. A movement caught his eye, just in time to see Roman land on his bed, and hear a snap, and a short, cut off scream. 

Virgil dropped his phone, kneeling by his bed. Roman was crumpled up, looking like he was unconscious, but his leg was bending the wrong way and looked to he quickly swelling. Virgil carefully shifted him on his back, with his leg propped up on a bit of blanket, as carefully as he could. Then he retrieved his phone and started looking up what to do for a broken leg. 

He did… his best. He’d technically followed the directions, and it looked as right as it could while looking so horrible. But Virgil still had a terrible sinking feeling that he’d done something wrong anyway. 

Roman was now set up on the dresser, his leg splinted, and laying on an ice pack. He was still unconscious. 

Virgil went back to the kitchen, and started knocking on walls. “Patton? Patton, please come, it’s your brother, he’s hurt. I don’t know if you can hear me, but you need to come.” 

It was only a few minutes later that Patton raced out the hole, panting. “Ro-Roman?”

Virgil lowered his hand to the ground next to Patton, biting his lip when he saw Patton flinch. “He fell out of a ceiling vent. Hop on and I’ll take you to him.” 

Patton panted, and looked between Virgil’s face and his hand, finally getting on. Virgil cupped his hand so Patton wouldn’t fall, using his other hand as a brace, and took Patton to his room. He set him on the dresser. 

“Roman!” Patton rushed to Roman and grabbed his hand. 

“He’s unconscious,” Virgil said. 

Patton was already in tears. “Roman, I’m sorry! I’m sorry, don’t die!”

“Patton, it’s ok, he won’t die,” Virgil said, trying to be encouraging. But Patton wasn’t listening to him, clutching Roman’s hand and sobbing. 


	24. Warmth

  * •^*^••



**24**

**Warmth**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14 and 16, but a few weeks later)

It. Was. Freezing. Logan was beginning to feel it through his jacket. His heater had gone out a while ago, and it was getting too cold to continue to be up and around. His fingers were so numb he could barely keep typing at his keyboard. 

“L-logan?” Came a voice, quavering with shivers. 

Logan spun his head around. The borrower living in his house was standing on the counter. His whole body was trembling with shivering, despite the blanket he had wrapped tightly around him. 

“Is it the cold?” Logan asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. 

The borrower nodded. 

“I believe I have an idea. Allow me time to prepare.” 

Logan gathered every blanket he owned and piled them on the couch. Then he ran an extension cord—thank everything the power was still on— to the couch. He plugged in his heating pad to the extension cord, and let it begin heating. Finally, he retrieved the tv remote and set it on the arm of the couch. 

“I have prepared a way to get warm,” he announced. “However, it will require that I touch you.” 

The borrower hung back for a moment, and then stumbled into his hand, his movements stiff from the cold. 

Logan carried him to the couch, and set him on the arm. He sat down, wrapping the blankets around himself and putting the heating pad against his stomach and chest. 

“You may sit wherever you like,” Logan said. “However, I would suggest you sit against my collar, as that will be both warm, and allow you an unobstructed view of the television. 

The borrower hesitated for a long second, before climbing up the blankets and settling between Logan’s jacket collar and his neck. He was cold, causing Logan to stiffen, but the warmth from the heating pad was beginning to spread pleasantly. 

Logan turned on a nature documentary, and slowly nodded off as the warmth spread around him, held in by the many blankets. 

  
  



	25. Flowerpot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wrote this as the very strongest and most impulsive of platonic loves, but like, it could super easily be read as romantic if you want.

  * •^*^••



**25**

**Flowerpot**

  * •^*^••



(Virgil is some kind of wingless fairy AU)

Patton  _ loved  _ flowers. He’d have a million of them if he could. 

And Virgil… well, Virgil would like to say he loved Patton as much as Patton loved flowers. Except that he’d never talked to Patton. Whereas Patton talked even to his flowers. Even though they could never answer. 

It was early in the morning, too early for Patton to be awake. Virgil carried his bucket, trying to be careful not to spill any of it. Finally he reached the flowerpot. This one was massive, the plant more comparable to a bush than a flower. But it was Patton’s favorite at the moment. 

Virgil unfurled a rope and swung the hook up to the edge of the pot. He tied the free end to the handle of his bucket and then climbed up, pulling up the bucket once he reached the top. He very carefully watered the plant, laying his hand on the stem and pushing health and happiness into it. 

He leaned his head back to watch as the branches stretched out just a bit farther, the flower buds blushing a bright color, the leaves deepening their green and reaching out towards the rising sun coming in through the window. He allowed a smile to grow on his face, thinking of how happy it would make Patton. And then he had an idea. 

He was light enough to climb up the plant without harming it. He reached one branch that had a bud on the end, readily visible from the outside. He pushed power into the branch, feeling it strengthen in preparation for the added weight, before the bud began to bloom. It opened slowly, pinks and oranges blending together as beautifully as the sunrise. 

It took a bit longer than he had expected, and he hadn’t considered how using that much power at once would affect him. He swayed slightly on his perch, listing to one side and slipping off the branch. 

He hit something much softer than dirt, and forced his eyes open. He was held cupped in Patton’s hands, and looked up at his face. Patton’s freckled face was lit up with wonder, and the sun shone through his curls and made a halo around his head. Virgil smiled up at him. This was a nice dream. Very kind of his brain. Although when he woke up he was sure he’d have a massive headache from hitting his head on the edge of the flowerpot. 

“Hi there, kiddo,” Patton said in a hushed whisper. “Are you alright?”

“Tired,” Virgil said, his words slurring slightly. He pointed up at the flower. “Made it f’r you.”

Patton gave him a bright smile, and Virgil knew it was worth any amount of power or work if he could get that smile. “Thank you! I love it!” Patton said, still quietly. 

Virgil smiled and turned on his side. He was so tired. Dream Patton probably wouldn’t mind if he slept in his hand. 

  * •^*^••



Patton had zero ideas as to why he was so incredibly blessed this morning. First the flower, and his plant was looking so much healthier, and then the tiny person falling asleep in his hand. And he had helped the plant grow the flower?! If he wasn’t so tiny Patton would have hugged him. For now, though, Patton was more than overjoyed to just hold him while he slept. 


	26. Invisible

  * •^*^••



**26**

**Invisible**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 17,18, and 20)

When the human frowned and grabbed at Patton, Roman zipped away from Virgil’s protective invisibility. He flew at the human, brandishing his thorn/sword, and driving it in as hard as he could into the soft place just under the human’s ear. 

“Let him go!” Roman yelled. 

The human let out a roar of pain, dropping Patton to smack Roman with both hands. Patton screamed. Roman didn’t care what happened. He was  _ not _ going to let some human hurt his dad! But just before the hands struck together, crushing him between them, they froze. 

The human cursed, his hands shaking as he tried to press them together. Roman smirked. It had to be the promise. The human couldn’t do anything to him. He flew down to Patton, grabbing him in a hug. 

The human cupped his ear with his hand, wincing as he tried to remove the thorn. Blood trickled down his neck. 

“Roman! Roman, I—“ Patton could barely speak, but that was ok. 

“I’m ok. I’m fine, Dad. You made him promise. He can’t hurt me.” 

Emboldened by Roman’s success, or perhaps finally running out of magic, Virgil dropped the invisibility, revealing himself and Logan. Both of them flew down to join Roman in hugging Patton. 

“If we surround you,” Logan said, though his voice shook. “Perhaps he will not be able to touch you either.”

Patton was still crying. “You scared me so bad!” He weakly hit a fist against Roman’s back. “Don’t you ever do that again! Don’t you dare!”

“Shh, I’m ok, Dad.” Roman said, holding Patton tighter, and very pointedly not promising. He’d do it all over again, any time his dad was in danger. He’d do it even if he didn’t know he was safe. “I’m ok. He can’t touch me.”


	27. Escape

  * •^*^••



**27**

**Escape**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 10 and 22)

Roman had to find a way to escape. Somehow. 

He’d been stuck in this awful jar for three days. The giant occasionally fed him, but he hadn’t been lying when he had threatened to make Roman’s whole life ‘uncomfortable’. More like miserable. He didn’t even talk to him. 

Roman had tried every version of ‘push the jar off the shelf’, but none of them had worked. And after he once got close, the giant put stuff around the jar to hold it in place. 

At least he could kind of see out the window a little. From his position, Roman could see the whole room, and into the other rooms if the doors were open. Not that that did him much good when all he could watch was a very boring and nerdy giant read books all day. 

Then the door opened, and a different giant came in. “Logan? Are you home?” 

Roman recognized this giant. He was the one that was supposed to actually have the medallion. It had taken him a good week to figure out that the medallion had been given away, and not just hidden. This particular giant was very recognizable because of a small heart-shaped birthmark on his face. Honestly, Roman was inclined to think it’d be cute, if he wasn’t a giant. 

Logan was not actually at home, but perhaps this was Roman’s chance. 

“Hey!” He yelled, banging on the jar. “Help! Help me please! I’ve been trapped in here!”

The giant looked around the room several times before looking high enough to see Roman. 

“You’re a human!” He said in surprise. 

“I want to go home!” Roman said plaintively, using his best puppy eyes, and tearing up a little. He dropped to his knees and clasped his hands. “Please, out of the kindness of your heart, free me!”

The giant melted. His face was covered in pity, and he reached up and took the jar down. 

“Thank you!” Roman cried, encouraging the tears to fall. “Thank you so much!”

“Oh, you poor little thing!” The giant cooed, taking the lid off the jar and tipping it on its side to let Roman out. “I don’t see why Logan would’ve put you in there. I thought he liked humans.”

Roman clung to the giant’s hand in an intense show of gratitude. “I don’t know. Let me go. Please. Help me get home!”

Just then the door opened again. “Patton? What are you doing?”


	28. Heartbeat

  * •^*^••



**28**

**Heartbeat**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16, and 24)

Virgil could hear Logan’s heartbeat. Logan had fallen asleep a while ago, his head slipping to the side and forcing Virgil to relocate. Virgil was now huddled close to his chest. A part of Virgil was appalled that he would get this close to a human, but a larger part absolutely refused to venture out into the cold again. 

The movie ended, and as the sound cut off Logan took in a deep breath, blinking his eyes open. But the deep breath and shifting of position as he woke was enough to make Virgil slip down into his lap. Virgil let out a yelp as he tried to stop falling, but it didn’t work. He tumbled down into a nest of fabric. 

“Hnn?” Logan said up further, and then he remembered Virgil. “Oh! I’m so sorry. Are you alright?”

He didn’t move to pick up Virgil, which Virgil was very glad of. He climbed up Logan’s jacket and sat down on his shoulder. “I’m fine.” Then he thought better of it, and moved to be between Logan’s collar and his neck. 

It was pleasantly warm, though if he leaned his head against Logan’s neck he could hear his heartbeat, and that was weird. 

“Would you like to watch another movie?” Logan asked. 

“Nah, I’m good.”

“In that case, would you mind if we relocated to my bed? It is past the time at which I usually go to sleep.”

“Uh… sure, that’s fine.”

“How would you like to handle the moving?” Logan asked. “I can carry you, or you can hold on to my collar. I suppose you could climb down and walk if you prefer.”

Virgil looked down and saw that the jacket had a pocket on either side. “Can I ride in your pocket?”

“Certainly, if it would make you more comfortable.”

So Virgil slid down and climbed inside the pocket. Soon he was swinging around in a not entirely pleasant way as Logan gathered the blankets and moved them to his room. If the jacket had been zipped up, it probably wouldn’t have been as uncomfortable, but Logan had left it unzipped after he had taken the heating pad out. 

“I am going to change into nightclothes,” Logan announced. 

“Ok. Let me out of here before you take the jacket off.” 

Logan did so, and returned very quickly, dressed in pajamas and shivering. Logan crawled into the bed and arranged himself, setting his glasses aside. 

“You are welcome to sleep wherever you like,” he said. 

Virgil wanted to be as close as possible for the warmth, but he had one large concern still. “Do you move a lot in your sleep?”

“Not to my knowledge. I typically wake up in much the same position as I fell asleep in.”

Virgil nodded, and made his way to Logan’s chest. His pajamas had a chest pocket, and Virgil crawled inside, curling up and letting the rhythmic heartbeat lull him to sleep. 

  * •^*^••



When Virgil woke up the next morning, he was surprised to find that his last reserves of fear had dissolved overnight. It was a bit uncomfortably warm, as the heater had kicked back on sometime during the night, but despite that he didn’t feel any inclination to get up. 


	29. Dew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though it’s tiny, this is one of my favorites :)

  * •^*^••



**29**

**Dew**

  * •^*^••



(Patton and Logan are ‘Outie’ Borrowers AU)

Patton woke up slowly. It was a cool, fresh morning, and he could feel it even in the little burrow. He looked around, but Logan wasn’t inside. He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and walked outside. 

Logan was sitting on the tiny stump, leaning against the stem of the new plant which was growing beside it, and looking out over the field. It took Patton a minute to climb the stump, since it was just a bit over his head, but he climbed up and sat down next to Logan, wrapping the blanket to cover both of their shoulders. 

It was a beautiful morning. The field was all glistening with dew, and there was small movement and noises from all the animals waking up and starting their days. Birds were flying through the sky, and bright chirping filled the air. There was a slight orange tinge to the horizon where the sun wasn’t quite fully risen. 

Patton soaked it all in, all the wide, and open, and new, all while leaning against Logan, who was warm and familiar. It felt like the best of all worlds, and it was exactly the way he liked to start his days. 


	30. Freedom

  * •^*^••



**30**

**Freedom**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 10,22, and 27)

It seemed that freedom was impossible. Logan had explained the situation to Patton, and Patton had agreed that Logan should not let Roman go. He did make Logan move Roman to a roomier cage, an actual cage this time, and give him some better food, but despite Roman’s pleas he didn’t help him get free. 

Roman was sulking in the back corner of the cage. Perhaps sulking was too light of a word, since the heaviness of his situation was really beginning to sink in now. 

“Evil beast,” he muttered, swiping angrily at the tears that now needed no urging. 

Too soon, Patton, his only chance of escape, was getting ready to leave. He could try just one more time. 

“Patton, please! Don’t leave me here!” 

Patton turned to look at him, pity in his eyes. 

“I am debasing myself and begging for your mercy!” Roman cried, shifting to his knees. “Please let me go.”

“Aw, kiddo, you’ll be alright.” Patton said. “You’ve got to be nice, Logan. Humans get scared easily ‘cause they’re so small.”

“I will be careful. Farewell, Patton.”

When the door shut behind Patton, Roman decided that he didn’t care about dignity anymore. He curled up and started crying, loudly. If Logan was going to hold him here, Logan would just have to deal with it. 

“What is wrong with you now?” Logan said, looming over the cage. 

Roman didn’t even make the tiniest attempt to pay him attention or answer him. If anything, he cried louder. Maybe he could annoy the giant into letting him go. 

Logan gave an annoyed huff before leaving. 

  * •^*^••



Virgil had searched the giant’s house while he was gone, but hadn’t found anything that would lead to Roman. He’d been up here nearly a full day, and was getting more and more worried. 

He hid when the giant got home, listening and watching from his hiding place as the giant talked to himself and puttered around the house. 

Thankfully, this giant talked to himself a lot, and made gestures. Virgil had a vague direction, almost a promise that Roman would be there, and a strong worry that he was hurt. 

  * •^*^••



Logan ignored Roman the whole next day, other than to leave food and water in his cage. Roman was utterly disconsolate. In the meantime, he tried to get out, but it wasn’t working. 

The cage didn’t have a floor. It had four barred walls, and a clear ceiling, with a handle on top. Logan could easily lift it to put things in or out, but Roman could neither lift nor push it. The bars were too close to fit through, through he left several bruises on his head and shoulders trying. If he ran at full speed from one end, and ran into the bars on the other, the cage moved minutely, but Logan noticed before Roman got very far, and just set the cage back farther from the edge. Roman was left with bruises covering his shoulders, and no progress at all. 

Roman slumped to the ground, tired and sore. Logan gave him some more food, which he stubbornly refused to touch. Night fell, and Logan went to bed. 

Roman heard a soft sound. Were there such things as giant rats? He shuddered at the thought. Though, giant rats probably couldn’t get in the cage. 

The sound got closer, now sounding like quiet grunting. Roman frowned, and moved to try to look out over the room. He didn’t see anything, though it was very dim. 

Suddenly a familiar head popped up at the edge of the dresser, and Roman had to clap his hands over his mouth to stop from screaming with joy. 

“Virgil?!” He whispered, watching Virgil finish climbing up on top of the dresser. 

Virgil rolled onto his back, panting, but he held out a thumbs up. 

“How’d you manage to find me?”

“Heh, told you I’d have to save your butt if you went after that thing, Princey.” Virgil whispered, still out of breath. 

He rolled over and got up. “Ok. How do we get you out of there?”

“Push on the end, if we can get it over the edge I can climb down.”

It took coordination, and over an hour of effort, but finally there was a gap large enough from Roman to drop through. 

“Just… a little break,” Virgil said, sitting down. “It’s a long climb down.”

Roman looked anxiously towards the bed, but Logan hadn’t moved since he fell asleep. 

They managed the climb down, and the walk across the house to outside. 

The sun was just barely coming up, but to Roman it was the most beautiful sight he’d seen yet. He was free. And he’d be home soon. 


	31. Wings

  * •^*^••



**31**

**Wings**

  * •^*^••



(Fairy AU, Fantasy AU, Virgil is young)

Logan patiently waved his wings back and forth. He’d been caught in the rain, and now he needed to get dry before he could return home. 

Suddenly something pinched his wingtips closed. Logan jolted, unable to turn around. He turned his head, but he couldn’t see anything. He was picked up by his wings, and cried out. It didn’t hurt badly, but it certainly was uncomfortable. He was turned around, and his feet touched a surface, though could still see nothing. 

Then suddenly a human appeared. The human had him held by his wings with one hand, with his other hand cupped beneath him for Logan to stand on. 

“What is the meaning of this?!” Logan said angrily, in a feeble hope that the human could be intimidated. 

The human child winced. “Sorry. I wanted to ask you something, and I thought you’d run away if I just said something.”

Logan crossed his arms. “Let go of my wings this instant. I will hear you, though it is very possible that I will not answer favorably.”

The human let go of his wings. Logan tried a few quick flaps, but they still weren’t ready to fly. 

“Sorry. I, um… well, my mom has magic, and, she has a cat that does magic sometimes.”

Logan nodded. “A familiar yes. I believe your mother would be classified as a witch. It is likely the reason why you were able to take me by surprise.”

The child nodded. “But, I’m not very good at magic yet. I can only do a few things. But you’re a fairy! And, I was wondering if you could teach me? You could be my familiar, and I’d take care of you, and you can teach me magic.”

“I absolutely object to becoming your familiar,” Logan said sternly. 

The child’s face fell. 

“However, under certain conditions, I would not object to becoming your teacher.”

“Does that mean you will teach me?”

“Yes. Provided you pay me.”

The child frowned. “I don’t have very much money.”

“I’m a fairy, I have no need of money. I would accept your name, as a starting payment.”

The child’s face lit up. “It’s Virgil.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Virgil.” Logan said. “You may address me as Teacher, for the moment. I look forward to our relationship.”

Virgil smiled brightly. 


	32. Laughter

  * •^*^••



**32**

**Laughter**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31)

Virgil laughed as the bright soap bubbles floated above his head. 

“Now,” Logan instructed. “Draw one towards you, without breaking it.”

Virgil reached out a hand, and instantly every bubble popped. He looked at Logan anxiously, as if he expected to be scolded. 

“They are just bubbles. It is practice.” Logan guided a bit of breeze through the wand, creating more bubbles. “Try again.”

After a long time, with just as little success, Logan frowned, sitting down on the windowsill. “Perhaps we are going about this the wrong way. Clearly, you have magic, yet the ways in which humans learn do not seem to work for you.”

Logan guided another breeze to make a new set of bubbles. “You may take a break. Enjoy popping the bubbles while I think.”

Soon Virgil was chasing the bubbles through the yard, jumping up to hit them, and laughing pleasantly whenever he succeeded. He seemed in quite a good mood today. 

Logan frowned. Almost none of his teaching had worked. He’d taught many fairies before, and never with such poor results. Virgil had been a learning curve for him, since humans learned so differently, but he had thought that he could manage, until it continually failed. 

He let out a sigh. He needed a short break as well. Constantly taxing his mind wouldn’t make it work any better. 

Instead, he made more and more bubbles, allowing himself a smile at Virgil’s antics. He had to make quite a few, since the wind kept blowing them just too high for Virgil to reach. 

And then it struck him. Perhaps it was something about Virgil himself. Something that caused nature itself to be stubbornly set against him. It would perhaps explain Virgil’s failed search for a familiar, which was still ongoing, and had brought many close calls. 

“Virgil, come here please.” 

Virgil jolted at the use of his name, coming immediately. 

“You’ve mentioned that there are some types of magic that you can do, would you demonstrate those for me?”

Virgil looked down at his feet. “Mama said not to.”

Logan frowned slightly. “She did? Do you know why?”

Virgil whispered. “Cause people aren’t supposed to know that she’s a witch, even though she’s a good one. But I’m not, and she said that it’s dangerous.”

Logan pondered this. “Are you saying that you naturally excel in dark magic?”

Virgil nodded solemnly. “But it’s a secret.”

“That is an impossibility. I have never once heard of a human mastering any form of dark magic naturally.”

Virgil ducked his head down in an embarrassed shrug. 

Logan flitted up to sit on top of Virgil’s head. “Take me to the forest, please.”

“What are we gonna do there?” Virgil asked, already heading out of the yard. 

“We will practice further.”

Once they were well within the forest, Logan moved to sit on a branch. “I would like to see your magic, Virgil.”

Virgil frowned, wringing his hands together as he struggled to resist the pull from his name. “But Mama said not to…”

“Virgil, there is no one out here to harm you, and no one for you to harm except for me, which I do not believe you will do. Show me your magic.”

Virgil plopped down on the ground, his eyes shut tight and his face screwed up. “Fine, but let go first.”

Logan sighed. “You are released from the command, Virgil.” He felt a twinge of guilt. Virgil was a child, after all, by all rights he should never have experienced name magic, much less have to fight against it. 

Virgil let out a long breath, slumping forward. Then he sat up, with his eyes closed, and held out a hand. 

The shadow of the tree Logan was sitting on stretched out, and then separated from the tree, winding into a soft, dense ball. The ball rolled, or perhaps floated, along the ground and into Virgil’s hand. 

Virgil’s eyes opened, and glistened with fond affection. He petted the shadowball, cooing soft nonsense to it. 

“This is not dark magic,” Logan said bluntly. “Many humans believe it to be, because of the many,” he pinched the bridge of his nose. “There are many restrictions for Shadow Mages. Many other elements firmly refuse to cooperate. And it frequently  _ looks _ dark, since it is primarily shadows.” 

Logan sighed. Training a Shadow Mage had a host more problems than merely teaching a magic-sensitive human. What had he gotten himself into?


	33. Edge

  * •^*^••



**33**

**Edge**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 10,22,27, and 30)

Roman and Virgil stood on the very edge of the hole. The beanstalk was shrinking. It was only a few feet below them now, but the drop was dizzying, even to Roman, who wasn’t at all afraid of heights. Virgil was visibly shaking, his face startlingly pale. 

“I-I can’t. I can’t.”

“We have to,” Roman said, though he was feeling a strong inclination not to. 

From behind them there was a shout. It was Logan. 

“Jump!” Roman commanded. Virgil didn’t budge. 

Roman grabbed his wrist and jumped down. He caught onto the vine, but Virgil didn’t, and he was pulled down. 

Roman screamed. Virgil screamed louder. They were in free fall. 

They slammed against a truly massive leaf, knocking all the air from Roman’s lungs. He managed to keep ahold of Virgil’s wrist and still grab the stem of the leaf with his other hand. 

The beanstalk was shrinking faster now, the wind whipping the leaf back and forth even as the leaf grew smaller. Roman pulled Virgil close to him. 

“Hold on you idiot!” He yelled. He didn’t mean it. Or maybe he did. All he knew was that if Virgil kept acting like a rag doll he was going to die. 

Either way, Virgil latched on to the stem, and both of them were carried down as the vine shrank. 

At the bottom, there was a small crowd watching curiously. Almost every one of them startled back when Roman and Virgil came into view. 

“Prince Roman!” One of them exclaimed. “You’re alive!”

“Of course I’m alive!” Roman said, putting on his loud, grand, prince persona. “I’ve barely been gone three weeks and you thought me dead?”

“Well, yes, sire. We held your funeral two days ago.”

Roman huffed. He’d known that the queen wanted him out of the way ever since his father had died, but this was getting ridiculous. 

“Come, Virgil, it appears we have an appointment at the castle.”

Virgil stumbled after him on shaking legs, making Roman wish he had a horse handy. 


	34. Slam

  * •^*^••



**34**

**Slam**

  * •^*^••



(Logan and Roman are friends, and Logan is a borrower AU)

Roman slammed the door, startling Logan, and flopped facedown on his bed, groaning loudly into the mattress. 

Logan put a hand to his chest, breathing deeply to calm himself. “Must you be so dramatic, Roman?”

Roman rolled over onto his back, groaning loudly again. “You’re a horrible person, Logan. Won’t even console me in my misery.”

“I highly doubt you are truly experiencing misery.”

Roman groaned again. “Horrible, tiny, mean person.”

“I believe only one of those is accurate,” Logan said, turning back to Roman’s textbook, which he had been studying. 

“You don’t even  _ care _ about what  _ happened  _ to me!” Roman whined. 

“Not particularly, no.”

“What if it was something really bad!?”

“If it was something that truly concerned you, you would act in a more sincere manner.” 

Roman huffed, rolling over away from Logan. 

When, after a while, Roman hadn’t tried to bother Logan again, Logan began to worry that he had been mistaken. Perhaps Roman really had been in need of someone to listen to him. 

Logan carefully climbed down the desk. He went to his home, and picked up one of his usual apology candies. To be fair, Roman bought them originally, but it was an agreed upon matter between them. Roman gave Logan several candies whenever he bought them, and Logan could use them as apologies. 

Logan strapped one to his back and then made the climb up Roman’s bedside table. When he got to the top, he saw that Roman was not, in fact, upset, but was asleep. 

Logan made the leap from the table to the bed, and left the candy on the pillow. Roman would appreciate the gesture, even if it was unneeded. 

Logan considered. It was early enough in the afternoon, it shouldn’t ruin his sleep. He laid down near Roman, and closed his eyes. 


	35. Web

  * •^*^••



**35**

**Web**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31 and 32, but this one of Roman and Patton.)

Patton had been thoughtless. He’d been flitting around without a care, enjoying the garden while the humans weren’t watching. And then he had gotten himself stuck in a web. 

Patton jerked and pulled, thrashing around. It didn’t do any good. He let out a sob. If it could trap him, it must be an awfully big spider. He squirmed and struggled, and tears started falling off the end of his nose. 

“I don’t want to die!” Patton sobbed. “Somebody help me! Please!” 

The web shook from something other than him, and Patton turned to see a spider staring at him. 

He let out a terrified scream. 

The spider got closer, and started crawling all over him, winding the web tighter around him. 

Patton screamed and sobbed, begging someone, anyone to save him. 

He had almost given up when suddenly there was a human child in front of him, whispering, “Are you a fairy?” In an awed voice. 

“Help me, help me please!” Patton begged, his voice quiet and almost gone from all the screaming before. “Please, I’ll do anything, just get me free.”

The child reached out and wrapped fingers around him, pulling him free from the web. Patton started crying again from the relief. 

“Are you really a fairy?”

Patton nodded. 

The child ran inside, trying not to shake Patton too hard. He set Patton down on a table and pulled most of the webbing off of him. The child grimaced at his hands and walked away, probably to wash them. 

Patton scrubbed at his face and cleaned the rest of the webbing off, shuddering at the icky feeling. 

The child came back, carrying a small plate, well, small for a human, and a cup. 

“I got you some honey,” the child said, setting the plate down. “I heard that fairies like honey. And some tea, but it’s cold, cause mom made it a while ago.”

Patton looked down at the honey. It looked and smelled delicious, but he didn’t have anything to eat it with. “Thank you. For saving me. Thank you so much! Um, can I, would you let me have a petal from one of your roses?”

The child’s head cocked to one side. “I’ll get one!”

He was back in moments. Patton tore off a piece of the petal and dipped it in the honey before eating it. It was delicious! The honey was amazing, and the child certainly knew how to pick a good petal. 

“Does that mean you like it?” The boy asked, looking at Patton’s wings, which were shivering and fluttering as the honey made his whole body feel light and energetic again. 

“I do! I really like it! Thank you!” Patton flew up and hugged the child, through the most he could reach at one was one cheek. 

The boy laughed. “I’m glad you like it. Do you think you can stay?”

“If you want me to. At least until the grownups come back.”

“Yay! Can you really do magic?” 

“I sure can! Wanna see?”

“Yes!”

Patton flew outside, and the child ran after him. Patton sat down on a flower bud. “Watch this, it’s my favorite!” 

He petted the bud, softly encouraging, and was rewarded by a slow swelling, and a soft opening of the flower. 

He turned around, smiling wide. “See?” 

The boy jumped up and down. “That’s amazing! Can you do other things too?”

“I can do a lot of things! Most of them are plant things, but I can do a lot!”

Patton grew to love the child, even over the short time of a single afternoon, and the next day, when the adults had left, he returned. And then the next, and the next. The boy always had honey to share with him, and Patton learned that his name was Roman. Roman wanted to grow up and be a knight, and go on grand adventures. Patton fully encouraged this. 

“You’ll be the best knight in the whole kingdom!”

“And you’ll come with me!”

“Of course I will, kiddo.”


	36. Razor

  * •^*^••



**36**

**Razor**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31,32, and 35, but quite a few years later.)

Patton shifted his grip on his sword. It wasn’t a very good sword. Despite his magic and Roman’s craftsmanship it was little better than a shard of a razor with a handle. 

Patton also wasn’t very confident that he could use it. He thought that it was more likely that he’d end up hurting himself, or even Roman, before he actually managed to stab someone else. Not that he really wanted to do that either. 

He was thrilled to accompany Roman on his quests! Less thrilled to do the helping when Roman reached the object of the quest. 

He was standing on Roman’s shoulder, though he had to keep fluttering his wings to keep his balance, especially since Roman was ducking and squeezing around the thick undergrowth. 

Finally they made it to an itty bitty clearing, and saw that on the other side there was a path. In the middle of the clearing was a shack, and the shack was smothered in shadows, despite it being mid afternoon. Even without the shadows, there had to be loads of magic just holding the shack up. 

Patton felt the tiniest twinge of pity for the witch they’d been sent to kill. Even if they were evil, if this was where they lived then they were kind of pitiful too. 

“Come out, witch!” Roman shouted, unsheathing his sword. 

Patton flew up a bit higher, just above the range of Roman’s sword, and sat on a branch. He’d help if he could, but until then, Roman could get very… energetic with the sword, and Patton didn’t want to worry about one of his wings getting cut. 

But no one came out of the hut. Roman went and banged the door open. Patton winced as the whole structure shook. He flew down to look inside, but it was empty. 

“Do you think he moved?” Patton asked. 

Roman shook his head. He touched a cup that was left on the table (which was just as rickety as the shack).

“No, this is still warm. He’s been here a few minutes ago. Darn it! I’ll bet he ran right off when I called him out!” Roman jabbed his sword into the floor, which was just dirt. 

“We can wait for him to come back,” Patton said encouragingly. “If he lives here, he has to come back sometime.”

“To  _ this  _ shack?” Roman scoffed. “Just as likely to build a new one.”

“We can still try,” Patton said, patting Roman’s head. 

Roman’s face twisted as he debated. He plopped down on the ground. “Fine. We’ll wait.”

Patton smiled brightly. “We’ll get him, I know we will.”

Roman grumbled. 

Patton flew directly in front of his face. “You know how I know?”

Roman knew. It never failed to make him blush ever since he turned fifteen, which is a large part of why Patton continued to say it. 

“It’s because you’re the best knight in the whole kingdom.”

Roman looked away, but a smile was tugging at his lips and even in the dim shack Patton could see the blush dusted over his cheeks. 

Patton then flew around the shack. It was tiny, and rickety, and dark, but it seemed to be made mostly out of wood. He put his hand against some of the poor old branches, coaxing them gently. Some were just dead, but some he coaxed into setting down roots, and growing up branches. He grew them up stronger, and guided the new branches to twine around the dead wood and hold it in place. It was nighttime before he was done, but the shack had straightened up, firmed up massively, and now had a bright green top of dense leaves. 


	37. Threaten

  * •^*^••



**37**

**Threaten**

  * •^*^••



(Continued directly from 36, so also continuing from 31,32, and 35)

And now Patton was bored. Fairies didn’t sleep nearly as much as humans did, or on the same schedule, so while Roman was beginning to nod off, Patton was wide awake with nothing to do. He flew down to sit on Roman’s head, idly braiding strands of hair. It kept Roman awake a bit longer, but eventually he fell asleep, even though he was sitting up. 

Nothing happened for another hour, but then Patton heard a shuffling sound. He looked around, wondering if there was a mouse somewhere in the house. Suddenly a fairy appeared right in front of him, flying towards him at full speed. Patton barely got a squeak out before there was a hand covering his mouth, and another pulling him into the air by his shirt, and then shoving him against the wall.

“Don’t make a sound,” the other fairy warned. 

Patton should’ve thought of his sword, but he didn’t until the fairy had tossed it away from him. 

“You grew your plants around my human,” the fairy said, his voice quiet to avoid waking Roman, but not any less threatening. “Remove them immediately.”

Patton squirmed and struggled, pushing back against the fairy. “Get off,” he said, though he kept his voice down to a whisper too. “I don’t know about any other humans, but that one’s mine, and I didn’t grow the plants around him. Well, I guess the house counts as around him, but he can get up once he’s awake.”

“Not that blundering idiot,” the fairy snapped. 

Patton scowled. 

“My human is over there. Show yourself, please.” The fairy’s voice softened considerably for the last sentence.

In the corner appeared a human. He was covered in roots that Patton hadn’t even been able to see before. The human was dressed all in black, and even before the roots grew all through his clothes they would have been ragged. He was so close to Roman he could have tapped him with his foot. 

“Is your human the witch?” Patton asked. 

The fairy turned back to him so quickly Patton darted away, worried he might try to hit him. “He is  _ not  _ a witch, no matter what anyone might say!”

Patton crossed his arms. “Then why do the townspeople hate him so much?”

“Because they’re idiots, like most humans.”

Patton frowned again. “Even if they were, that isn’t enough to hire someone to kill someone.”

“Isn’t it? You ride around with someone who kills as his vocation, and you do not know that?”

Patton’s frown deeped. “He doesn’t just kill for no reason, he does it to protect people!”

“And who does this protect?” the fairy snapped, gesturing angrily at his human. His voice was loud enough to wake Roman. 

The human let out a soft, “Logan!” and vanished. 

The fairy grabbed Patton. He must have had a tiny knife or something also, because Patton felt something sharp press at his throat. 

“Get out of here, human, or I’ll hurt your fairy!” 

Roman blinked, and turned to look, the bleariness vanishing quickly. “W-what?”

“I said get out! Leave and don’t come back.”

“If I leave, you won’t hurt him,” Roman said, already slowly getting up.

“I won’t hurt him. Leave. Now.”

Roman moved slowly towards the door. “I’ll wait for you.”

Patton didn’t dare nod, but he gave a quick thumbs up. 

Roman walked out, and Patton could hear him walking away. 

“Virgil, quick!”

The fairy let go of Patton, and the darkness of the whole shack rose up to meet him, swaddling around him like a thick blanket. He couldn’t see, and he couldn’t move.


	38. Snatch

  * •^*^••



**38**

**Snatch**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15, and 23.)

_ Roman ran as fast as he could, but he wasn’t fast enough. The human snatched up Patton. Patton’s face turned from fear to pain.  _

_ “Roman! Help!” _

_ Roman was still running, and somehow no closer. “Patton!” _

_ Patton screamed, and the human let out a dark chuckle as he dropped Patton.  _

Roman woke with a strangled scream, which stretched into a real almost scream as pain enveloped him. 

“Roman! Roman, I’m here. I’m here.” Patton grabbed his hand and leaned over him, tears falling from his eyes. 

“Wha-?” Roman started to try to say, but gave it up. He reached up and pulled Patton down into a hug. 

“You fell,” Patton said. “I-I didn’t know if you were gonna wake up.”

“Wher ‘re we?” Roman asked. His voice was hoarse, and his tongue felt heavy. 

“We’re on Virgil’s dresser—No!” Patton pushed down hard on Roman’s shoulders when he tried to sit up. “You can’t move. I’m not letting you.”

“Can’t stay-“ Roman tried to protest. 

“No! You aren’t moving. I don’t care if I have to tie you down! You nearly died and I won’t let you chance anything that might make it worse!” Patton’s chin was trembling, and tears fell onto Roman’s chest. 

Roman reached up and wiped away some of Patton’s tears with his thumb. Patton leaned into his hand. 

“Prob’ly can’t get up an’way,” Roman said, relaxing as much as he could, and trying to just ride out the pain. 

Patton hugged tight to his chest again, sobbing. Roman patted a hand on his head. 

“Shh. ‘S ok.”

  * •^*^••



Roman’s gaze snapped to the door as it opened. The human walked in. Roman grabbed Patton’s sleeve tightly. 

“Virgil, can you stay over there?” Patton said. Then he turned back to Roman, gently brushing his hair back with his fingers. “It’s ok. Virgil isn’t going to do anything to either of us. It’s ok.”

“I um, I wanted to offer you guys some dinner.”

Patton nodded. “That would be nice. And— Roman’s hurting a lot. Is there anything you know of that would help?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll get some painkillers. Just have to figure out how much.”

The human left the room. Roman let out a shaky breath. 

Patton hugged him. “It’s alright. He’s not like the humans we heard about.”

“What if he is?” Roman said, wheezing as he accidentally jostled his leg when he tensed. “What’s if he’s the tricky one?”

Patton was petting his face and hair, trying to do everything he could to help, even though it wasn’t much. 

The door opened again, and Roman jolted. “Agh!” He very nearly sat up and grabbed onto his leg, but Patton held him down again, though he was sobbing. 

“Sorry! I’m so sorry.” The human left something on the edge of the dresser and immediately back away. “I’ll get the painkillers as soon as I can.”

Time was a haze of pain, but then Patton was holding something to Roman’s lips and telling him to drink. It was sickly sweet, but Roman drank it. 

Slowly, the pain faded, and Roman drifted into a fitful sleep. 


	39. Solution

  * •^*^••



**39**

**Solution**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15,23, and 38. Kinda playing fast and loose with the prompt but… eh?)

Virgil had tried to explain the medicine to Patton, but he didn’t really understand it. All he knew was that it kept Roman feeling better, and also sleeping a whole lot. 

“He has to sleep so his leg can get better,” Virgil said. 

“But he’s slept so much! I’ve barely gotten him to eat anything.” Patton scrubbed at his eyes. He wasn’t crying. He felt like he’d cried himself out these last few days. But his eyes were sore. 

“Hey, it’ll be ok,” Virgil said softly. “I’ll get some soup, and he can drink the broth. That’ll help.” 

Patton nodded, wrapping his arms around his middle. He wanted a hug. He wanted Roman to be better. He wanted… he could barely remember his parents but he wanted them now. 

“Here.” Virgil set a pillow on the dresser. The pillow was barely bigger than his hand, so to Patton it was big enough to lay on, and stretch out, and might even fit both him and Roman at the same time. “You can use this as a bed, if you want. And here’s some more blankets. Sorry it took me so long to get them.”

“Thank you.” Patton was exhausted. He knew he should give a better thank you, but he just couldn’t right now. 

“I can make Roman one too, for when he’s a bit better. I don’t think we should move him yet.”

Patton nodded. “That would be nice. Thank you.”

  * •^*^••



Roman woke up again, and Patton helped him to drink the soup broth and take more medicine. 

“Patton, I’m sorry for running off angry. None of this would’ve happened if I had just stayed.”

Tears that Patton had thought were gone welled up in his eyes. “I don’t care what you do, just get better.”

Roman held out his arms, and Patton carefully fell into the hug. 

“I will. I’ll get better, I promise.” Roman petted his hair gently. “You’re doing so much, Patton. So much more than you should ever have to. You’re being so brave.”

“I don’t feel brave,” Patton said. “I’m scared.”

“But you’re still here, working so hard to take care of me.”

Patton just squeezed tighter. “I don’t like this.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

  * •^*^••



Several days later, Roman was able to move a little bit. He certainly couldn’t stand, but he and Patton moved him off the hard dresser top and laid him on the pillowbed Virgil had made. 

Roman grudgingly admitted that Virgil probably wasn’t a bad human. If he’d wanted to do anything, he had certainly had the opportunity. But instead he fed them, and gave them everything they asked for, and had been sleeping on the couch so that they could have his room to themselves. 

Patton was going for a real look around Virgil’s house. Roman had insisted that he do something to stretch his legs, since he’d been staying on the dresser top the whole time. 

Roman was sewing, since he didn’t have to move his legs to do that, and Virgil had given him a wide selection of fabric and thread to work with, admitting that he’d bought much of it especially for Roman to use if he wanted. Roman wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand, the fabric was gorgeous, and new, and he had more than he could even use. And he had the time to make the best, warmest, most comfortable and useful clothes he could imagine. But on the other hand, with every day and every present, he could practically feel himself sinking in the debt he was accumulating. He dreaded the day the debt would have to be paid. 

(The solution to the problem of Roman hates Virgil is time and patience, and being nice to Patton, though, the solution isn’t quite complete yet. It’s a stretch, I know, but I wanted to write this chapter.)


	40. Footsteps

  * •^*^••



**40**

**Footsteps**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 1)

The footsteps echoed away into the distance. Tears spilled over. It had been his one chance, and he blew it. Now he might have lost even the little he had. 

Patton went to bed. 

When he woke up in the morning the basket of apples was gone. 

It took Patton a while to decide, but then he started packing. He gathered everything he would need for a few days, and packed it all into a bag. Then took out a lot of it, since he could barely lift the bag. 

Then he went on a walk. A walk right up the mountain. 

It took him all day, and no sight of the giant, to find the cave. The opening of it was huge, but that was nothing compared to the size once he walked inside. 

“Hello?” He called out, his voice taking a while to echo back to him. 

“Who dares enter?” A very, very loud voice said. 

Patton covered his ears tightly, but even the echo shook through his chest. “I-I’m Patton. I gave you apples?”

“And did you expect payment after all?” The voice thundered, sounding very annoyed. Patton still couldn’t see the giant, since the cage was very dark. 

“N-no. Can you— can you please speak quieter? Your voice hurts.”

“Then leave my cave.” The giant said firmly, though his voice was much quieter now. 

“I don’t—“ Patton squared his shoulders and shouted into the darkness. “I don’t want to! I want to stay!”

There was nothing but his own echo for several long minutes. 

“Why?” The giant asked, and his voice was very quiet now, almost the same as Patton’s own. 

Patton’s voice dropped quiet too. “I’m tired of being all alone.”

There was the sound of footsteps, and then a grinding sound. Patton was blinded by the sudden light, and shut his eyes tight. After a minute he could open them. There was a hole in the ceiling, letting light down into the cave. 

Patton could see the giant, who looked much smaller when he was a bit far away, and compared to the massive cave. And then Patton shrank back, because he was close to an edge that dropped off very far. 

“H-how did you, how did you make the hole?” Patton asked, his voice quavering. 

The giant’s eyes widened, and then he gave Patton a long explanation that he barely understood about levers and pulleys, and a shorter explanation that Patton understood far better about how hard it was to get enough supplies to build the thing he’d made. 

Patton was feeling almost comfortable, despite the drop off he could see if he looked towards it. 

“I apologize, I’m rambling.”

“No, no, it’s ok. It’s, it’s actually really nice to have someone talk to me for so long.”

The giant looked at Patton as if he’d never seen him before. “You, weren’t annoyed by it?”

“Well, no. I didn’t understand everything you said, but it didn’t make me annoyed.” 

The giant just stared at him. 

“So I’m Patton,” Patton said, reaching a hand out. “But I don’t know your name yet.”

The giant’s hand was massive, making the handshake more of a ‘touch finger to hand’ kind of thing. “My name is Logan.”

“Well, Logan, do you mind if I stay?”

Logan frowned. “This is a cave. It’s not very habitable for humans.”

Patton’s face fell. He knew that. Just he didn’t want to think about it yet. “Well, can I at least stay until tomorrow? It’ll be night in a few hours.”

Logan nodded slowly. “I will attempt to find some way to make you comfortable for the night.”

Patton beamed up at him. “Thank you!”


	41. Secret

  * •^*^••



**41**

**Secret**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 1 and 40)

Patton had a secret. He had a giant for a friend. His giant friend was named Logan, and Patton already liked him more than he had known he could like a person. It probably helped that Logan actually talked to him, and wasn’t afraid to spend time with him. 

But now Patton wanted to do something in return. One of the hardest things for Logan, besides being all alone and having to keep hidden from most humans, was getting enough food. Patton had an idea about that. 

So now he was trudging up the mountain, wondering if he’d get really strong legs, with how much hiking he’d been recently, and bringing with him a pack of seeds. 

He marked out an area by tying red strips on cloth on the plants around the area, and started pulling out some of the brush. It was a mostly clear spot, and it wasn’t long before he had it ready. He pulled out the seeds. 

“You grow so well,” he said to the seeds in his hands. “And I’ve never planted you, since you came from my plants, and I was worried you might grow even more. But now I want you to do that! Grow big, and grow fast. So big a giant could eat you and be full. Grow so big you could be eaten and there’s leftovers! I know you can do it, because your parents were such good plants. I’m sure you’ll do it so well!”

Patton planted every seed, and then went to visit Logan, and warn him not to step on them. 

By the next day, Patton could see sprouts. And in a month, there were vegetables so big he couldn’t lift them. Still not big enough for Logan, but far better than normal. Patton pulled Logan out of his cave to see them. 

Logan knelt by the little garden bed. “Patton, this is incredible! You really did it for me?”

“Of course I did! I’ve been up here almost every day, telling them to get big.”

“And it worked?”

“Kinda! What do you think?”

“Patton…” Logan paused, searching for the right words. “Thank you.” 

Patton grinned up at him. He ran and gave his knee a hug, since that’s what he could reach. 

A massive hand rested on his back, and then scooped him up, holding him up to Logan’s eye level. 

“Is this ok?” Logan asked. 

Patton looked around, and let out a squeak. “Only if I don’t look down.” He wrapped his arms tightly around Logan’s thumb. 

“I can put you back down, if you’d rather.”

“No. I mean, this high up it’s kind of scary, but now I get to hug you!”

Not to mention, from this close, Patton could see the faint blush on Logan’s cheeks. 


	42. Dollhouse

  * •^*^••



**42**

**Dollhouse**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15,23,38, and 39. Roman can now get around a bit. He still has a splint on, but he has some makeshift crutches and can move around with them a good bit. Virgil is now back in his own room, and Patton is very happy that everyone seems to be getting along.)

  
  
  


“You want what?”

“I want a dollhouse. And other supplies.” Roman said. 

“What for?” Virgil asked. 

Roman crossed his arms as much as he could while holding onto crutches. “Does it matter?”

“Well, kinda. If I’ve got to be the one to buy it.”

“Well, I don’t want to tell you.” 

Virgil frowned, but it was more confusion than annoyance. “I mean, I guess.”

Roman pushed while he was ahead. “I found one when you let me on your computer, and I want that one.”

Virgil’s frown deepened, but he pulled up the page on the laptop. “Oh. Well, it’s not  _ that _ expensive. Yeah, I can get it for you. I just…  _ never _ would have imagined you’d prefer a dollhouse to—“

“I said I don’t want to tell you what it’s for.”

“So you don’t want to live in it?”

“No.”

Virgil squinted suspiciously at Roman. 

“Gonna need glasses if you keep that up,” Roman muttered under his breath, turning around to leave. 

  * •^*^••



The dollhouse arrived. And soon after came the supplies. Roman started work immediately. He knew his skills, and what he could and couldn’t do with a leg still in a cast. So he began with pulling out all the ‘wallpaper’ and started painting the walls. 

He took the fabric he still had, and cut and sewed it into rugs. He made curtains for the windows, and made curtain rods out of a toothpick and the ends of a popsicle stick, painted, of course.

Roman painted the outside of the house as well, though that was more difficult. He was a good painter, though he’d never in his life had as much opportunity to practice as this. 

Patton helped as much as Roman would let him, and got more and more excited about the house every day. 

It took several weeks to finish, and by then Roman was able to put a little weight on his leg, as long as it was still in the brace they’d made. 

Roman waited until Patton was asleep, and went to find Virgil. Virgil was never asleep first. 

“Virgil?”

“Hmm? Oh. Hi, Roman. Need something?”

Roman sat down on Virgil’s bedside table. His jaw was clenched tight, and he could barely open it to speak. 

“The house is finished.”

“Yeah, I saw. It looks amazing.”

Roman swallowed heavily. “I’ve seen on your computer, and you could probably take it, and a few of the outfits I made, and sell them for anywhere between $500 and $1000.”

Virgil’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. 

“I want you to take the money and let Patton go. I-I know I’ll have to stay here. And what could $500 compare against a life anyway? But it’s a start, and I’ll do more. Once my leg heals I’ll be able to do it faster too.” Roman felt tears building up, and he kept talking, trying both to convince Virgil and to not let the tears fall. 

“Roman, Roman, hey. Calm down.” 

Roman scrubbed at his face angrily. “What’s calm about this?!” He growled out. 

“Roman, I promise, I’m not holding either of you here. Anytime you want to leave, you can leave.”

“Yeah, and you’ll keep saying that right up until we actually try to leave!”

“No, I mean it. You can leave tomorrow. You can leave right now, if you want. I’ll miss you, but I won’t come after you. You can sit in that wall my whole life, and if you want me to ignore you and leave you alone I will. Or you can leave completely, and I won’t try to stop you.”

Roman’s guard against the tears broke. “You can’t do this! You can’t give and give and not expect anything back! It’s not how it works, I don’t believe you!”

“I have gotten paid back,” Virgil said. “I get to talk with you and Patton every day. You’re my friends. And if I ever even thought about money, that house would over and above pay back every cent I’ve spent on the both of you. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I-I don’t— I can't—“ Roman covered his face with his hands. 

“Roman, I promise, you don’t owe me anything.” Virgil repeated. 

“Why?” Roman asked, his voice cracking horribly, even in only one syllable. 

“Because you’ve already paid me back more than enough just by staying and being friends with me.”

Usually, Roman would’ve made some kind of ‘are you that desperate for friends’ joke, but this was not a usual situation. “But I wasn’t your friend. I’ve been scared of you this whole time.”

Virgil’s face fell. “I’m sorry.”

Roma pounded his fist on the dresser. “ _ You  _ didn’t do anything!”

“Maybe not then, but I can now. Roman, would you want to be friends with me?”

“I don’t know.”

Virgil’s face fell again. “That’s alright. I can leave you alone.”

  * •^*^••



The next morning both Roman and Patton were gone. It was lonely, and far too quiet. Virgil almost wished he had never promised all he had the night before. But, since he promised, he didn’t look for them, and he didn’t knock on the walls. But he left the makeshift home they had made in the corner, just in case. 

It was three days later when a voice called his name. 

Virgil spun around to see Roman standing on the kitchen counter. 

“I— if you’ll still have me, I think I would like to be friends with you.”

“Yes.” Virgil said, while his brain was still stunned. 

Patton rushed out from a hiding place. “Yay! I knew you two could get along!”

  * •^*^••



Logan’s niece was having a birthday shortly. And if he was going to bother with a present he was going to get a good one. 

Finally he saw it. Even just from the first picture the superior quality was evident. He clicked on the listing, and with every picture he was further convinced that the $800 asking price was an insult to the artist who had made the dollhouse. Some of the details on the walls must have been painted with the tiniest brush, and were painted in rooms small enough to barely allow for a hand to move, much less paint so accurately. He bought the dollhouse, and the clothes that came with it. 

When it arrived, he couldn’t help but take a closer look. He didn’t care much for dolls, but this was simply incredible. He would be very curious about how it was done. 

And then he saw something. He had to use a magnifying glass to see more clearly, but then he was sure. There were impossibly small fingerprints on the curtain rods. 

Logan looked up the person who had sold the house. 

Virgil Storm. 

He would have to find a way to pay Virgil a visit. 


	43. Corner

  * •^*^••



**43**

**Corner**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 25)

  
  


Patton sat in the corner, holding his cupped hands in his lap, and marveling at the tiny life in his hands. He had dark hair, and it was so tiny and soft looking. His clothes looked like they’d been sewn together from leaves and petals. His little chest rose and fell as he slept, and Patton thought that he had never in his life seen anything cuter. 

It was a while later that he stirred, stretching and letting out a little groan before opening his eyes. Instantly his eyes went wide. He bolted upright, backing up as much as he could. 

“I— you’re— I— no.”

“Oh, hey, don’t be scared,” Patton said softly. 

“You’re— I thought… dreaming,” the poor thing gasped. 

“Kiddo, take a deep breath.” Patton took a breath as an example. 

He breathed in, and out. It was faster than Patton’s, but it was smoother than before. 

“I’m Patton, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Virgil.” He sat down, hugging his knees to his chest. 

“Thank you, Virgil, for the flower,” Patton said, trying to infuse all the brightness he could into his voice while still keeping it quiet. “It really made me happy!”

Virgil looked up at him, and then ducked his head away with a shy smile. “You’re welcome.” He loosened his grip on his knees. 

Patton thought for a minute. “Would you want to eat breakfast with me?”

Virgil blinked up at him, surprised. “You… want me to stay?”

“Of course I want you to stay!” Patton said. 

Virgil gave him another shy smile. “Then yes.”

Patton beamed. 

Soon there was a breakfast of pancakes ready, including itty bitty ones for Virgil. Only after the pancakes were done did Patton realize that he was out of syrup, but he had honey, and that really wasn’t so bad. Virgil certainly loved it. 

The talking was a little awkward, until Patton brought up plants. Virgil knew more than he did about plants, but didn’t seem to know the normal names for them, or where they had come from. While Patton didn’t know the best way of taking care of them, and what each plant wanted. 

Patton learned that Virgil was a plant sprite, though Virgil wouldn’t tell him why he was staying near Patton’s house, or how he knew which plant was Patton’s favorite. 

“Well, I guess I should go back home now,” Virgil said, his face oddly resolute. 

Patton suddenly realized that Virgil didn’t really want to leave, and that if he did leave, he might not come back. 

“Wait, do you have to? I wouldn’t want to keep you away from your family, but, if you want to, I’d love it if you stayed!”

Virgil gave him a tiny frown. “I mean, I guess I could stay for lunch or something…”

“No, I meant… can you stay forever?”

At the look on Virgil’s face Patton quickly backtracked. 

“Not forever! I mean, one of us will die someday. No! That’s not what I mean! I mean I want you to stay, like live with me. But I won’t keep you here! Not if you don’t want to! Um… but maybe— roommates? Would you stay and be my roommate, Virgil?”

Virgil’s face was pink, the longing standing out on it clearly. He just nodded. 

Patton scooped him up and held him to his chest in a hug. 


	44. Vent

  * •^*^••



**44**

**Vent**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15,23,38,39 and 42)

Roman and Patton were hidden behind the vent, where they could see out, but hopefully no one could see in. They’d dashed here quickly when there was a knock at the door, and Virgil had frowned, saying that he wasn’t expecting anybody. 

Virgil checked that they were hidden and then opened the door. “Hello?”

“Hello. My name is Logan. Am I correct in assuming that you are Virgil Storm?”

“Yes…” Virgil said hesitantly. “Did you… need something from me?”

“I bought the dollhouse from you.”

“Oh. Ok? Did it break in shipping or something? I know I sent it out alright.”

“No, it arrived perfectly whole. I have come to inquire where you acquired it from.”

“I… made it.”

Logan nodded firmly. “In that case I would like to inquire how it was made. The level of detail required is impossible.”

“I have, uh, small hands. And I’m good at details. Look, Logan, I don’t know you—“

“No. I meant impossible. No matter how small your hands may be comparatively, you could not have painted that house.”

“Dude, now you’re just being insulting,” Virgil said, but was again interrupted. 

“If indeed you did paint the house, I would like to see some of your other works.” Logan took a step forward, as if he would try to come inside the house. 

“No.” Virgil said firmly. “I don’t know you, and you may not come into my house. Please leave.”

Logan stared Virgil down, not moving forward, but also not taking a step away. 

Virgil pulled out his phone. “If you do not leave now I will call the police. Go. Away.”

Finally Logan nodded. “If that is what you want—“

This time Virgil interrupted. “It is. Go away.” He shut the door practically In Logan’s face. 

  * •^*^••



“Well, I didn’t have much confidence in a straightforward plan,” Logan said into his voice recorder. “Which is why I have several others.”


	45. Company

  * •^*^••



**45**

**Company**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24, and 28. Sympathetic Deceit and Remus.)

Virgil had company. He had never expected to have company, ever. And yet he did. They had showed up late last night, absolutely exhausted, and had asked if he would let them stay for at least one night. 

Despite his multitude of fears, he agreed. How could he help it? They absolutely needed the help. And what could they do to him? He already knew Logan, and was even confident that there was no way Logan would hurt him. 

There was a borrower a bit older than he was, who looked like he’d been caught in a fire. Virgil didn’t dare ask what had happened. With him were two twin boys, who said that they were twelve. He was not related to them, but their parents were either dead or missing. 

But Virgil hadn’t anticipated how quickly three extra hungry borrowers would deplete his food supplies. He didn’t keep much food in his house anyway, since he frequently was given food by Logan. But now it was gone, and he had three people that he felt responsible for. 

“I’ll go borrowing,” Virgil said. 

“I’ll come with you,” Dee said, standing up. 

“No, no, it’s ok. You don’t know the house, or the human. You’re my guests anyway, stay here.”

Dee frowned, but sat back down. “Thank you. But I will want to help if anyone has to go again.”

Virgil nodded. “Just stay here for now.”

Virgil got his largest bag and quickly found Logan. 

“Logan? Can I ask for a favor without you asking questions back?”

“You may. Wh— never mind. Yes. What is the favor?”

“I need food. A good bit of it.”

Virgil could see the questions bubbling up in Logan’s mind, but he didn’t ask them. 

“Do you care what kind of food?”

“Something like a half of a granola bar might work.”

Logan nodded, and was back with a granola bar in under a minute. He broke it in half, and Virgil took one piece, shoving it in his bag, which wouldn’t close now, and hefting it up. 

“Thank you.”

“You are most welcome. Will you be able to carry it and still move adequately?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Virgil made it back to his house. 

“Woah! How’d you get that?!” One of the twins asked. 

“Did you take it right out of the human’s hand?” The other asked. 

Virgil grinned. That was a very close guess, though the kid clearly though Logan had been sleeping or something. 

  * •^*^••



The problem came two days later. Virgil had been practically itching to go out and talk to Logan, but he felt like he couldn’t, so he’d been spending much of his time lurking in the entrances to the walls. 

Suddenly he heard an “oh…” and a small, terrified squeak. 

Virgil rushed out. 

Dee was frozen just behind a box of cereal, and Logan was also frozen, his hand reaching out for the box. Neither of them moved, staring at each other. 

Virgil moved in front of Dee. It snapped them both out of their daze. Logan blinked, and Virgil felt Dee grip his shoulder. 

“Logan, please leave the room,” Virgil said, his voice as calm as he could make it. 

Logan opened his mouth, and Virgil could see the build up of questions that had been waiting so long nearly tumble out, but then he closed it, turned, and walked out of the room. 

Dee made a long, shaky exhale. “How did you do that? Never mind, he’ll be back any minute. We’ve got to leave!”

Virgil turned and gripped his shoulders. “Calm down. He won’t be coming back yet. I… I know him. He knows that I live here.”

Dee gaped at him. 

“If you go back to my house, I’ll talk to him.”

“You’re a trick.” Dee said. “You lure in other borrowers.” His face turned to horror. “I won’t let you give him the boys. I don’t care what I have to do.”

“No, no, Dee, I’m not. I promise. Logan’s a decent human.”

Dee shook his head. “You’re lying.” He pulled away and ran back into the wall. 

Virgil sighed. So much for company. They’d be gone before the sun set. 

“Logan?”

“Can I come back now?”

“Yeah.” 

Virgil climbed onto the offered hand. Logan sat down at the table. 

“Can I ask what’s going on now?”

Virgil nodded. “Some other borrowers came. They’re running away from a bad situation. I said they could stay with me, and I tried to keep them a secret. Logan, you can’t try to talk to them, even if you see them.”

Logan nodded slowly. He absently stroked Virgil’s hair while he was thinking. Virgil leaned into it. Usually it would make him a bit annoyed, but he’d missed Logan these last few days. 

“Is there anything I can do to make them more comfortable?”

“I don’t think so. I bet they’re leaving. If you see one of them, just pretend that you didn’t, and walk away.”

Logan nodded. He must be thinking again, because his fingers were roaming over Virgil. He always needed something in his hands while he was thinking, and Virgil didn’t mind being that thing sometimes. 

“Is there anything I can do to actively help?” 

Virgil shrugged. “I don’t know. I get the feeling they wouldn’t accept help from you.”

Virgil looked away, feeling rather bummed out, and saw Dee. Standing on the kitchen counter, shock painted all over his face. Virgil had no idea how long he’d been listening. 

“L-Logan!” Dee yelled. 

Logan turned to look. “There’s no need to yell. I’m capable of hearing you at a normal volume.”

“What a-are you doing?” Dee asked, his body trembling with the effort it took to maintain his mask of confidence. 

“I had been discussing plans with Virgil.”

“Why’s he in your hands, then?! What are you doing to him?!”

Logan looked down at his hands, and Virgil looked up at him.

“It’s the fidgety thing,” Virgil said. 

“Ah. Yes. I tend to fidget with my hands while thinking. Virgil seems to find it pleasant.”

Virgil flushed at the wording, but he nodded. 

Dee shifted his glance from Virgil up to Logan. “You weren’t lying?”

“No, I wasn’t.” 

Dee turned, and walked back to the wall, looking over his shoulder frequently. 

“Maybe… they won’t leave?” Virgil said hesitantly. 


	46. Tremors

  * •^*^••



**46**

**Tremors**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31,32,35,36, and 37)

That was when the tremors started. Patton didn’t like the dark. It wasn’t nearly as bad a fear as his fear of spiders, but normally even in the dark there was still the moon and the stars, and now there wasn’t. And he couldn’t move. 

“Let me out. Please.” His voice came out very small, and it still cracked. 

The shadows melted away. Patton was left shaking on the ground. Tears dripped out of his eyes. 

“I-I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, are you hurt?” Virgil asked, and he sounded genuine. 

Patton shook his head. “Can I go?”

Logan and Virgil exchanged a glance. 

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “I’m sorry. Do you need any help?”

Patton shook his head. He was shaking so badly he could barely get in the air, but he did it, and flew out of the shack and straight to Roman. 

Roman was waiting. He caught him and held him to his chest. 

“Sunshine, you’re shaking. What did they do to you?”

Patton just gripped tight to Roman’s shirt. He didn’t want to talk right now. Roman stroked a thumb over his head. 

Roman carried Patton to a small clearing, and then laid down. Patton was still holding tight to his shirt, but the shaking had stopped. 

“I’ve got you, Sunshine. We’ll go deal with it in the morning.”

“Thank you.”

  * •^*^••



Roman left Patton outside. Whatever the witch did to him, he wasn’t giving him a chance to do it again. 

He stalked into the hut. The witch was still stuck fast with the roots covering him, though a small section had been cut. When Roman walked in, the fairy darted up out of reach. 

Roman drew his sword. 

“No, nonono wait, please!” The witch cringed back into the corner. “I didn’t hurt anybody. I never hurt anyone!”

“You hurt Patton,” Roman growled. 

“I didn’t! He said he wasn’t hurt. I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”

“He was shaking. He could barely talk.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry. You don’t have to kill me for it!”

Roman frowned. 

“I-if you let me go I’ll give him my name.”

“No!” The fairy exploded. “You can’t do that!”

“He wants to kill me,” the witch protested, and the stark fear in his voice cut through much of Roman’s anger. 

“Everyone wants to kill you, you can’t just go giving your name out!” The fairy scolded. 

“I’ll accept the deal,” Roman said. “But you have to give your name first.”

The witch nodded. 

Roman opened the door. “Patton?” 

Patton sprung up from where he’d been tending a flower. “Yeah?”

“I made a deal with the witch. He’s going to give you his name, and then we let him go.”

Patton cocked his head to the side in surprise, but came inside the hut. 

“You’re going to give me your name?” Patton asked. 

The other fairy bristled, practically vibrating with anger. 

The witch nodded. “My name is Virgil. Let me go. Please.”

Patton moved back, settling on Roman’s shoulder, looking as if he’d only just then had a revelation. Then he flew to the wall, and soon the roots were shriveling, and drying up. Roman caught him as soon as he was done. Drying up plants took a lot more energy from Patton. 

“Alright, get out,” Roman said gruffly. “If I see you again anywhere near here I won’t let you go.” 

Virgil dipped his head in a quick nod, and scrambled out of the hut. Roman didn’t see or hear him walk away. 

“Are you alright, Patton?”

Patton looked up at him, his face uncharacteristically thoughtful. “Have you ever wondered… if maybe we’re doing the wrong thing?”


	47. Top

  * •^*^••



**47**

**Top**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, and 45. Sympathetic Remus and Deceit)

“Stooooooop!” Roman moaned, his voice going in and out. 

“I don’t know how!” Remus said gleefully. 

Virgil looked in horror at the top, spinning wildly, with Roman barely holding on. He also had no idea how to stop it. Not without it flinging Roman off. 

Dee just sighed. 

How had they gotten the top spinning? How had they even gotten a top?!

It took it a minute to stop, and Roman slumped off, very nearly throwing up. 

“Are you alright?!” Virgil said. 

Dee waved him off. “He’ll be fine. These two get into messes more often than they don’t.”

Remus knelt beside Roman, clutching his hand. “When you die, tell our mother I’ve always loved her!”

“Promise,” Roman said, though his voice sounded like he was close to throwing up again. 

Dee rolled his eyes. 

Logan walked into the room, his eyebrows shooting up. “Has something happened?”

“Mr. Logan,” Roman said plaintively. “Bury me in roses. Please! It’s all I’ll ever ask for!”

Before Logan could get worried, Dee stepped in. “You are not close to death, Roman, and you’re scaring our hosts. Apologize, both of you.”

“Sorry,” both twins muttered. 

“May I ask what has actually transpired?” Logan said. 

“I spun Roman on the top!” Remus said excitedly. Then his eyes got very wide. “Would you spin me?”

Logan looked between Dee and Virgil. “I am almost certain that if I were to spin the top with you on it, it would result in severe bodily harm.”

“I don’t mind!” Remus insisted, bouncing up on his toes. 

“That was a no, dear,” Dee said. 

Remus pouted. “Can we at least still bury Roman in flowers?”

“In roses,” Roman said, finally sitting up. “Please?”

“I am not opposed to purchasing you flowers,” Logan said. “However, there will be no burial involved.”

Remus pouted again, but Roman looked quite pleased. 

“There is no need for you to buy flowers for us,” Dee said. 

Roman’s face fell, but he didn’t contest Dee’s words. 

“I’m aware that it is not a need,” Logan said, his tone softening. “But I frequently find pleasure in giving gifts. Please allow me to do this for you.”

Virgil saw Dee silently mouthing ‘allow?’. 

Dee finally nodded. 

Logan mirrored the nod, a triumphant glint in his eye. “Virgil, would you like to accompany me?”


	48. Reveal

  * •^*^••



**48**

**Reveal**

  * •^*^••



(Continued directly from 47, and also from 14,16,24,28, and 45. Sympathetic Deceit and Remus.)

Virgil nodded, but he bit his lip. Other than Logan, he’d never willingly revealed himself to any humans. He trusted Logan to keep him safe, but that didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking. 

It was only a few minutes before Virgil was riding out in Logan’s chest pocket. For Logan, it was only a thirty minute walk to get to a flower shop. Virgil hadn’t even known it existed. He was also a bit surprised. 

“I didn’t think humans walked this far to get places.” Virgil said, bravely keeping his head above the edge of the pocket and looking around. 

“Most do not. I would be the exception.”

“Why?”

“I enjoy walking. It makes me more conscious both of my own body and of the world around me.” 

Logan opened the door to the flower shop, and a bell rang. While he was looking around, Virgil’s attention was caught by a man on the other side of the shop. The man was carrying a small box. 

“I said shut up!” The man said, angrily and under his breath. He shook the box roughly, and Virgil heard a thump and a small sound. It sounded like someone getting hurt. 

Virgil hit his fist against Logan’s chest, staring directly at the box. Logan easily read the signal, and soon his attention was also drawn to the box in the man’s hands. 

“Pardon me,” Logan said, walking towards the man. 

Virgil ducked down in the pocket. 

“What?”

“I was curious as to what you have in your box.”

“What, this? It’s another one of those damn tinies. Can’t go anywhere without running into one of them. Creepy little things.”

“Might I have it?”

“What?”

I would like to take your ‘tiny’.”

There was a silence, and Virgil was tempted to pop his head back up. 

“What’ll you give me for him?”

Logan rummaged around. “I have $45 in cash on me.”

“Yeah, dude, take it.”

Virgil waited until the man had walked away to pop his head back up. Logan was holding the box awkwardly. 

“Put me inside,” Virgil said. “And then get the flowers and let’s get home.”

Logan carefully scooped Virgil out of the pocket, and dropped him in the box. It was just a cardboard box, with the flaps folded over the top. 

Inside it was dim, but Virgil could see the other borrower huddled in the corner. 

Virgil crouched, not wanting to seem like he was looming. The box swayed as Logan walked. 

“Are you alright?” Virgil asked. 

The other borrower bit his lip and shook his head. 

Virgil crept closer to the other borrower, and was shocked into silence when the first move he made was to hug Virgil tightly. Virgil awkwardly patted his back, and the borrower started shaking with repressed sobs. 

“It’s ok now,” Virgil said, trying to be comforting. “Logan is my friend. No one’s gonna hurt you anymore.”

It wasn’t until they were well on their way home that the borrower calmed down some. 

“Sorry.”

“No, hey, it’s alright. I’m Virgil.”

“‘m Patton. Wh-what’s going to happen?”

“Right now, we’re going to Logan’s house. Once we get there, you can pick what happens next. If you want to get out, and meet some other borrowers, or if you just want to stay here, whichever is fine.”

“He has more borrowers?” Patton asked, the note of fear distinct in his voice. 

“He doesn’t  _ have _ them, really, we’ve been hosting them. They haven’t decided yet how long they’re going to stay.”

Patton nodded, ducking his face down to hide it. It was clear that he didn’t really believe Virgil. 

“What if I told you the story of how I met Logan?” Virgil offered. 

Patton shrugged. 

Virgil was telling stories of all the shenanigans the twins had been getting up to when they finally got home. 

The box was set down on the table. 

“How would you like this to go?” Logan asked, without trying to look inside. 

Patton shrank down as soon as Logan spoke. Virgil looked at him worriedly. 

“Leave the room, please, and I’ll come get you when you can come back. Maybe ask Dee if he would come and cut us a door.”

“That is acceptable.” They could both hear Logan’s footsteps retreating. 

“He asked you, and listened to you…” Patton said. 

Virgil nodded. “Yeah, he does that a lot. He’s nicer than any human I’ve ever met. Or even heard of.”

There was a knock at the outside of the box. “Hello?”

“Hi, Dee. Would you cut us a door?”

“Sure. Logan said you picked up a friend?”

“My name is Patton,” Patton said, not denying the friendship. 

Virgil felt his cheeks grow warm. Patton was still holding onto him. Perhaps picking up a friend wasn’t really an exaggeration. 

A loud scratching sound started up, and it took Dee maybe ten minutes to cut the hole in the cardboard. The two of them slipped out, and then Virgil paled. 

In the much brighter light of the kitchen, he could see that Patton was practically covered in bruises. Virgil just stared. 

Dee, who was much better at handling things, walked off. “I’ll go get some medicine.”

Patton flushed and looked down, embarrassed. 

“Sorry, I— are you alright?” Virgil said. 

Patton shrugged. 

“Dee’s getting medicine, but I can ask Logan for an ice pack, or a heating pad. Or I can get you some food.”

Patton looked up immediately at the mention of food. “That would be nice.” He gave Virgil a tentative smile. “Thanks, kiddo.”

Virgil’s heart swelled as he smiled back. He would officially do anything for Patton. 


	49. Creaking

  * •^*^••



**49**

**Creaking**

  * •^*^••



(Borrower Virgil is friends with young Logan)

The branch creaked as Virgil edged his way out. It was just a bit farther. Just a bit-- _ don't _ look down! Virgil closed his eyes and took in a slow breath. Then he continued. At the end of the branch was a string, tangled up and holding the balloon stuck in the tree. 

The branch started creaking again as the little breeze blew by. It wasn't fair! Virgil barely weighed anything, the branch ought to be able to hold him up! He swallowed heavily, inching forward more and more. 

Finally, he reached the string, unwinding it and tying it around his own waist. He breathed in, and out, and then jumped. 

The string jerked painfully around his middle, but he floated down slowly. Logan held out his hands, eyes wide. Soon Virgil was caught safely in his hands, and the balloon secured to Logan's wrist. Virgil was rather out of breath, and content to just sit quietly and try to gain back that grain of courage he sometimes had.

"You didn't have to," Logan said softly, sitting down in the shade. "I would have been far more upset if you were to be hurt than if the balloon were to remain in the tree."

Virgil lay back in his hands. "Yeah, but I was fine. I wouldn't go and get hurt for a balloon."

"I don't believe that you would," Logan said, more intelligence sparkling in his young eyes than Virgil had seen in many older humans. "But you would allow yourself to be hurt for me."

Virgil shrugged. 

"I appreciate your willingness to be helpful, and to endanger yourself for my sake, but I want to be sure you are aware that I do not wish you to do it again."

Logan was very serious, even more than usual. 

"Alright. No more climbing trees."

Logan nodded solemnly. Something else flashed in his eyes.

Virgil chuckled. "What now, genius?"

"I wish to experiment with exactly how much helium would need to be filling a balloon to lift you."

"Only if we do it inside, and with a long enough string that I won't get stuck up on the ceiling."

"Deal."


	50. Freefall

  * •^*^••



**50**

**Freefall**

  * •^*^••



(Roman is a borrower, Logan and Deceit are scientists. They’re pretty morally grey.)

  
  


Roman soared through the air, in a perfect, exhilarating freefall. The air rushed past his ears, making it impossible for him to hear anything else. He felt lighter than air, despite the fact that he was currently falling. His eyes were shut tightly, but he did wonder why he was taking so long to… well, to crash-land. Not that he wanted to go splat or anything, but he’d thought it would be faster.

He opened his eyes, and saw that he was almost motionless, suspended above a fan. 

One of the humans wearing lab coats reached out towards him, and Roman tried to squirm away, but he wasn’t exactly skilled in moving through air. He was picked up out of his spot in the air.

“Hey, what gives?!” Roman demanded, squirming. “Make me think you’re killing me and then just grabbing me like a roll.”

“Your thoughts on the matter were not considered in the experiment,” Logan said. “However.” He turned to Dee, who was still holding Roman, and mostly ignoring him. “Do you think the subject being cognizant of the method, if not the result, of the experiment would change the outcome?”

Dee shrugged. “It’s possible.”

“Very well. Roman, you will again be released over the fan.”

“Hey, wait!” Roman yelled, but he was dropped over the fan. 

He couldn’t really talk with the wind like it was, but he could certainly pout and glare at the two of them. 

Somehow, even if he tipped to the side and moved around, he didn't get past the edge of the air. But there weren't any walls. Perhaps they wanted to know why he wasn’t just slipping off the side and falling. He’d like to know that answer to that question himself. 

After a minute, Dee picked him up again. 

“So? Did it matter?” Roman asked, trying to pat his hair down with his one free hand. 

“It doesn’t not appear to have made a difference,” Logan said absently, bent over his papers, and scribbling more equations. 

“In that case, can you just stick me back in until you’re done? It’s far more comfortable than a hand.” Roman said, making his displeasure known through both his tone and through squirming. 

“You think it’s comfortable?” Dee asked. “There’s nothing stopping you from falling and possibly getting very hurt or dying.”

“Yeah, and there’s nothing stopping you from crushing me,” Roman snarked. 

“I do not see a downside to doing as he asks,” Logan said, still not looking towards them. “He will be contained and quiet. I could use your assistance, Dee.”

Roman was put back into the wind stream. He rolled onto his back, and just relaxed. It was too loud to really nap, but he was taking the comfy rest while he got it. 


	51. Landing

  * •^*^••



**51**

**Landing**

  * •^*^••



(Remus is a very chaotic borrower)

  
  


The only warning Dee had was a battle cry of a scream before something was landing in his hair. He let out a yell, ducking and scrubbing at his hair. 

Remus tumbled down, screaming again with glee, and Dee let out a terrified shriek, scrambling to catch him before he hit the floor. 

“ **_Why?! Would you do that?!_ ** ” Dee yelled.

Remus was giggling maniacally. “It’s fun! I wanna go again.”

“No!” Dee yelled, holding Remus between his hands where he couldn’t get down and potentially recreate the stunt. “How did you even get up there?”

“I swung,” Remus said gleefully. 

“You  _ swung _ ? What on earth is that supposed to mean?”

Remus pointed up to where a string was hanging down in the stairwell, held by a hook in the floor of the landing. Dee paled. 

“Did you know I was here? What if I wasn’t?! You would’ve died!”

“But I didn’t!” Remus said, trying to squirm out of his hands. “I wanna do it again, put me back up there.”

“Absolutely not,” Dee said immediately. “You’re staying with me for a while.”

Remus pouted. “Oh, so you’re no fun after all, huh?”

“Not if it means keeping you alive.”

Remus pouted more. “Fine. But if I’m stuck with you, you have to come up with something fun for us to do.”

“I’ll start you a movie,” Dee said, hoping to keep Remus still long enough to move the string without him knowing. 

“Oh, but only if it’s one of those chainsaw ones! You know you could get a chainsaw too. Even if you didn’t go after humans, you could still—“

“I’ll stop you right there. I’m not getting a chainsaw right now. Maybe in the future, but in that case I’d only be using it on wood.”

Remus pouted again, flopping back. “You’re no fun!” He whined.


	52. Vertigo

  * •^*^••



**52**

**Vertigo**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47, and 48.)

(Now called Tiny Tenants)

Virgil looked down over the edge, and took a step back as vertigo swirled within him. Of all the places in Logan’s house, somehow this one always unsettled him. Maybe it was the air vent nearby, blowing cold air over him. 

He was on top of the tallest bookshelf in Logan’s house. There was only a few inches between its top and the ceiling, just enough that he could stand up straight. Patton was shorter, and had no problems moving around, trying to sweep out the massive quantities of dust. 

There was a doorway into the walls, and a borrower house just past that. They’d built the house for Patton, and this bookshelf top would be his porch. He didn’t trust Logan yet, which no one blamed him for, and they’d all decided that this was a good compromise. He’d be seeing more of Logan from a safe location, and he could retreat to his house instantly if he wanted. 

But what Virgil thought was most important was that Patton was healing. His bruises were slowly fading, and they’d made sure that he didn’t have any broken bones. His ribs were under dispute, as Logan believed that they might be fractured, but Patton absolutely did not want Logan examining him. So they’d wrapped them up, where they would be more supported, and tried to keep Patton from doing anything that might hurt them. 

Patton shuddered slightly, and hid behind Virgil. 

Logan was... well, he wasn’t quite looking at them. He was staring at a wall nearby, and watching them out of his peripheral vision. Virgil shook his head, nearly laughing. 

“Lo, you can’t do that either.”

To his credit, Logan didn’t pretend he wasn’t doing anything. “I apologize. I find myself very curious about your living arrangements. I did not intend to cause fear.”

“It’s alright. Just... you’ll have to wait on that one for a bit.”

Logan nodded, his face neutral, but Virgil could still see the notes of disappointment. He left the room shortly afterward. 

Virgil and Patton resumed sweeping the dust up, and shoving it over the side onto the floor. Logan would come by and sweep it up later, when Patton wasn’t out. 

Soon Dee and the twins arrived, bringing water and cloths, and they helped to clean the whole top of the bookshelf as well as could be done. Then Virgil went to get some food, and they had a picnic on top of the dresser as a way to claim it as theirs, and safe. 

The twins, of course, couldn’t behave the whole time, and Remus very nearly tumbled right off the edge, nearly giving each of the adults heart attacks. So after that the two of them were sent to their house, and were grounded for at least the rest of the day. 

“Do you think you’re set up now, Pat?” Virgil asked. 

Patton nodded. “Thanks. For... for all of this. I didn’t— I thought living like this was impossible before, but now...” 

Virgil reached out, and Patton fell into his arms, trying not to cry. “It’s alright. Logan is a good bean. He’ll make sure we’re safe.”

“But why?” Patton asked. “If-if he’s curious, and he finds everything out, won’t he get bored? A-and when he gets bored—“

Dee’s face creased, as if Patton was saying out loud the same thing he’d been thinking. 

“He won’t kick us out. And he won’t hurt us.” Virgil said firmly. 

“How do you know?” Dee asked. “You’ve known him less than a year.”

“He won’t. I know he won’t.”

Virgil didn’t like being on the other side of a divide like this. But what he didn’t like more was his instinctual pull to believe them over Logan.


	53. Stuck

  * •^*^••



**53**

**Stuck**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37 and 46, but a bit later.)

(My favorite suggested names are ‘When Shadows Bloom’ and ‘Fairy Chess’)

  
  


They were off to slay a dragon! And Roman seemed very happy about it. For the first time, though, Patton wasn’t so sure that he was happy. 

At least this one really seemed like a dangerous dragon. The poor town had so many burned down houses. 

However, they now had the most chancy bit of the job to do. Finding the dragon. If they managed to find it, and sneak up on it, that was good. But if it found them looking for it before they realized, that could be very dangerous, and it was also possible that they wouldn’t find it at all. 

But at least they had a direction, and a mountain that it probably lived on. 

“This job may take a little longer than most,” Roman said. “With it being a smaller dragon, and with a whole mountain to search, we might not find it.”

Patton gave a sympathetic hum. “Do you think it has a cave, or a nest above ground?”

“Most of the firey ones have caves, but you never really know for sure.”

Unfortunately, the mountain was rather far away, and the silence between them wasn't as comfortable as it usually was. 

"Patton, are you alright?" Roman asked suddenly, turning to look at Patton, his face full of concern. "Did those fiends hurt you somehow? I wouldn't be upset at you for hiding it, but please tell me."

Patton curled in on himself. "No, they didn't hurt me. I promise. They scared me pretty bad, but..." He chewed on his lip. "We scared them too. Virgil thought we were going to kill him for no reason."

Roman reached up for him, and Patton landed in his hands. "Darling, they were hurting townspeople. That's why we were called. I'm glad that we managed to stop anyone from being hurt, but we couldn't have left those townspeople hurting."

Patton nodded, frowning. "But... what if the townspeople were lying?"

"Why would they lie about that?"

Patton shrugged. "If, well, I think Virgil's a Shadow, um, Shadowy magic person? They have a special name. But if he is, then that might be why he looked kinda creepy, and... and he had the darkness magic."

Roman nodded.

"And people don't like the Shadow Magic people. You know how lots of people think I'm just silly cause I'm a flower fairy? And some of them tried to catch me?"

A ghost of a frown crossed Roman's face, but he nodded.

"Well, people think that Shadow people are bad and scary. Even if they don't do bad things. I just... what if that's what happened?"

Roman frowned in consideration. It was several minutes before he answered. "Then I'm glad that we made a peaceful deal with them. But what's bothering you now? Surely you aren't upset only that we scared them?"

Patton shook his head. "I just wondering... If we were wrong about them, how many others might we be wrong about?"

Roman nodded slowly. "Well, to start, we weren't wrong about all of them. That wizard definitely was kidnapping those girls, and the one town really had a haunted bog, and we dealt with a few guards that one time who were definitely abusing their power. But, that being said, there have been some things that I wondered about."

Patton nodded, glad that Roman was understanding him so quickly. 

"I don't think we can do anything about the past," Roman said. "But I would certainly agree to be more careful in the future. We'll start with this dragon. We'll find it, and watch it for a while. We don't know for sure that it caught those houses on fire, and we definitely don't know why. Would that be a good start?"

Patton nodded. "And some dragons talk. If this one does, then we can talk to it!"

"Well, only once we're sure it won't try to torch us," Roman countered. 

The road they were following passed through a belt of trees, and as they were walking, suddenly Roman's feet were jerked out from under him, and the two of them let out startled screams. Roman was hanging by a rope tied around his feet, and looped up high in a tree. In the jerking, Patton got one of his wings a bit crushed, and he held on tightly to Roman's thumb to avoid falling. Roman twisted to reach his sword, but the movement made it slide out of its scabbard and fall to the ground.

A man stepped out from behind a tree, smirking at them. "Are you stuck?"


	54. Cling

  * •^*^••



**54**

**Cling**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, and directly continued from 53.)

(My favorite suggested names are ‘When Shadows Bloom’ and ‘Fairy Chess’)

  
  


Patton could immediately see that the man had a glamour on, and that, almost more than the man stepping forward and reaching out to him, made him extremely worried. He clung tighter to Roman’s hand, as he wasn’t certain that he’d be able to fly if he tried.

“We are stuck.” Roman said, only barely keeping his composure. “Would you be so kind as to help us down?”

The man reached out towards Patton, and Roman cupped both his hands around him, holding him safe and close. The man looked displeased, but retracted his hand. 

“May I ask who you are?” He said smoothly.

“My name is Sir Roman. Please help me down.” Roman said. His tone was clipped, and Patton knew he was moments away from calling the creepy man things like fiend and oaf. 

The man’s smirk didn’t leave his face. “I suppose then that you’re the one who was sent to kill me? What did you need to drag a poor little garden fairy into it for?” He grabbed Roman’s hands, and tried to pry them apart. 

“Let go, you cur!” Roman snarled, trying to pull away from him and find some way of getting down.

“I chose to stay with him!” Patton said indignantly, holding tight to Roman. “Please let us down, we don’t want to hurt you unless you did something bad.”

The man clicked his tongue, and a curl of smoke escaped from his mouth. “What if I did do something bad?”

“You’re the dragon,” Roman said, struggling again to get down. 

Patton looked at Roman’s face, which was getting quite red. Being upside down for so long wasn’t good.

The man just looked pleased. “So I am.”

Patton took a few more seconds of thought, and then climbed over Roman’s fingers. He fluttered his wings as hard as he could, ignoring the wrong feelings from his crumpled one, and tumbled to the ground. He ran as soon as he could, towards the tree. 

“Ah, ah, ah, little fairy,” the man said, stepping in front of him and picking him up in the air by his wingtips.

“No!” Roman bellowed, twisting all around in the air and flinging his arms out trying to grab or punch the man. “Release him, fiend!”

Patton felt a shard of fear pierce his chest. He tried very hard to keep his voice steady. “Please let me down.”

The man clucked sympathetically. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You’ll go free your knight, won’t you?”

“He won’t.” Roman said immediately. “Put him down.”

The man raised an eyebrow curiously and Patton nodded slightly. His eyes were starting to tear up, despite his best efforts to stay strong. 

The man sat down, placing Patton on the ground. Patton backed away from him several steps. 

The man looked at Roman. “You are oddly both exactly as I expected, and not at all as I would have guessed.”


	55. Separate

  * •^*^••



**55**

**Separate**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, and directly continued from 54.)

(My favorite suggested names are ‘When Shadows Bloom’ and ‘Fairy Chess’)

  
  


“Can you let Roman down? Please?” Patton asked, calming down, but only a little.

“When you’re in danger of your life, releasing your enemy is rarely wise,” the man replied. 

“Then what, you’re just gonna stare at me until the sun sets?” Roman asked.

The man shrugged. “Honestly speaking, I hadn’t expected to get this far. I’m just seeing where this takes me.”

Patton wasn’t sure what to do, but first he probably ought to tend to his wing. He carefully smoothed out the wrinkles and straightened it, patting extra dust around the creases. He gave a little flutter as a test, and while he could feel the weakness, his feet did leave the ground. A night or two of rest and it would be good as new.

“How  _ did  _ a cute little garden fairy like you end up with a knight?” The man asked.

Patton almost couldn’t help mumbling “m not a garden fairy,” under his breath before he answered. “We met when he was little.”

The man looked at him curiously. “Then you support his becoming a knight?”

“Oh, yeah, ignore me,” Roman said grumpily. 

Patton wondered if this was a trick question. If he said yes, would the man trap him again? But if he said no, the man might think that Roman was keeping him captive. 

“I think Roman can become a good knight,” Patton said. “They aren’t all good, but I think he can be.”

The man nodded slightly, and then waved his hand in front of his face. The glamour disappeared, showing scales and twisting horns, but a mostly humanish body. “Then let me tell you my story. I’m curious to see what you think a ‘good’ knight would do about it.”

Patton gave a cautious nod, and listened as the  man ,  dragon , shifter told his story. 

He was far older than he looked, at least three centuries, though he said he’d lost track of time somewhere, and was possibly even older than that. He’d lived in the mountain almost his whole life, and considered it his. There was a cave, that he would never tell them the location of, and in that cave he kept his hoard of treasures. Some of the people from the village had found his cave, and thought that because he was a dragon, if they were able to take the treasure, then they were entitled to it. He’d flown down and caught houses on fire until he found his stolen treasure and recovered it, and then torched a few more in retribution. Apparently Patton and Roman were the third people that had been hired to kill him. 

“Um…” Patton said, hoping that he was actually finished and that Patton wasn’t interrupting. “What happened to the others?”

The shifter grinned, showing off fangs. He clicked his tongue and a curl of dense smoke leaked through them. “What do you think?”

Patton’s eyes went wide, and he took a step backwards towards Roman. 

“So?” The shifter asked. “What would a ‘good’ knight do in this situation?”

“I-it’s a pretty complicated situation,” Patton stammered, backing towards Roman. 

The shifter nodded, watching him with an amused smile. 

Patton thought hard. “Probably, he should help the village rebuild, and find some way to make peace between the village and the dragon.”

The shifter nodded again. “You think deeply, for a garden fairy.” 

Patton suppressed the instinctual frown. He nodded politely. 

“Do you think you could get your knight to attempt this plan?”

“I could try,” Patton said hopefully. 

The shifter raised an eyebrow, nodding. “Then I will allow you to try.”

He stood up, and grew, larger and larger, and his scales spread over his body, until he was a full dragon. He took off, and flew away towards the mountain. 

Patton flew up to the branch the rope was tied to, and pulled out his little sword to cut it. He grew things up inside the rope to separate the fibers, and then he could cut them, so it took a while, but finally Roman dropped to the ground with a loud ‘oof’.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the creator’s vote, and one other, for When Shadows Bloom. And the creator’s vote for Fairy Chess.
> 
> This is the official poll! Cast your votes!


	56. Needle

  * •^*^••



**56**

**Needle**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15,23,38,39, 42, and 44)

(Borrower AU)

“Will this work?” Virgil asked. “It’s the smallest I could find.”

Patton held the needle, which was nearly as long as his forearm. “It’s amazing! How do human beans make things this little?”

Virgil shrugged, smiling. “Really careful machinery, I think.”

Patton went to sort through the pile of fabric scraps. Virgil had started buying those sample packs, that had like forty different fabrics, all about the size of a handkerchief. It didn’t cost  _ all  _ that much, and he would’ve bought many more if it would make Patton and Roman happy. 

“Thanks, Virgil!” Patton said brightly, emerging from the pile with a soft blue piece of fabric. 

Virgil smiled. “Anytime, Pat.”

Roman was already set up on his throne, which was like a massive beanbag chair he’d made himself. He had fabric all around him, and was working on sewing a complicated gold bit on the white shirt. 

Virgil had made a deal with them, that they could see whatever they wanted, and he’d sell it, and buy them anything they could possibly want. Or they could do another dollhouse, though they’d have to be more careful selling it this time. But first, they each had to make something for themselves. Something that they took enough time with and were sure that they liked. 

They each had nearly a wardrobe that Roman had made while he was stuck off his feet, but these would be special ones, for everyday, that they could make as fancy or as plain as they wanted, and definitely as comfortable as possible. 

Virgil turned away to go make lunch, but out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw something out the window. He went and looked, but didn’t see it. 

Just in case, he locked the window. 

  
  



	57. Fear

  * •^*^••



**57**

**Fear**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 9 and 21)

(Now known as Accidental Repression)

There were a number of things that increased Thomas's anxiety. It just happened to be very many of them today. He hadn't slept well, had had an early morning social engagement, drank way too much coffee to get ready for it, and now that it was over, and anxiety ought to be dropping, he was still filled with irrational fears and jittery energy. 

Virgil had been expecting it. He knew he was overdoing it, but he was just as filled with anxiety, if not more, than Thomas was. So he wasn't surprised, really, when he suddenly shrunk. He ought to have gone to his room, but, now that everyone knew, he was less careful, and was now stuck on top of the refrigerator, tiny, and terrified. 

He backed away from the edge, sitting down and hugging his knees to his chest, trying to control his breathing.

It was Logan, opening the refrigerator, that startled him.

Logan frowned, getting a stool to stand on to see the top of the refrigerator. "Virgil? Are you alright?"

Virgil was still freaking out over the whole fridge shaking when it was opened. "Get me down."

Logan reached for him, and Virgil flinched back. "Not like that."

Logan didn't show any discomfort or annoyance at Virgil's demands. He got a plate, and held it next to Virgil. "If you climb on, I can use this to transport you."

Virgil looked at the plate suspiciously. "You won't drop it? Or tip it?"

"I certainly will not drop it. There is bound to be a small degree or tipping, but I will keep it as minimal as possible. The closer to the middle you sit, the easier it will be to accomplish."

Virgil slowly nodded, and then climbed on, shutting his eyes tight. If he was going to die, he at least didn’t have to watch.

There was a brief stomach-dropping sensation of movement, and then the plate came to a stop. 

“Is this acceptable, or would you rather go somewhere else?” Logan asked.

Virgil opened his eyes. Logan had put him on the floor, where he could go where he wanted. And also be stepped on. Or maybe attacked by rats. Or someone might even rise up directly underneath him. He shook his head.

Logan considered for a bit. “I came down for some food, and then I had intended to resume my studying. Would you care to join me?”

That… might actually be the safest. At least until Virgil grew again. Logan was careful, and calm, and if he was studying then he  _ probably _ wouldn’t want to try any kind of experiments. Virgil nodded. 

“Then let me get my food. Is the plate still an acceptable method of transportation?”

“Um, yeah, it’s fine.”

Logan managed to get both his snack and Virgil up to his room without any troubles. He sat down, and Virgil just kind of wandered around a little section of desk. 

After a minute, Logan looked up from his book. He got up and started rummaging around in the drawers of his desk. 

“I have, somewhere… Ah. Here it is.” 

He set the pair of headphones on the desk and leaned the MP3 player against one side. 

“My music tastes are not the same as yours, I’m sure, but you are still welcome to listen.”

Virgil was more than a little surprised. Logan had done something just to make him more comfortable? Then again, come to think of it, he’d done several things to make him comfortable, and even tolerated his demands and non-answers. 

“Thank you.”

Logan gave him a small smile. “You’re very welcome.”

Virgil sat down, leaning against the other side of the headphones, and glad that they were the large, clunky, over-ear ones. He turned Logan’s music on shuffle, and skipped several, but some of the songs weren’t bad. Some definitely were, but some were actually pretty ok. 


	58. Diversion

  * •^*^••



**58**

**Diversion**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, and 52.)

(Tiny Tenants)

  
  


Virgil was meant to be a diversion. Not that they really  _ needed  _ a diversion, but it made Patton feel more comfortable. Dee would take Patton to get some food, enough to make a large enough store that he wouldn’t have to leave his house for at least a week if he wanted. Virgil just had to keep Logan in his room. 

That wasn’t difficult. Virgil climbed up onto Logan’s desk. Logan was, as could reasonably be expected most of the time, studying. He wrote, but not just any writing, he wrote science papers. They didn’t exactly bring in a lot of money, but it was what Logan was passionate about. 

Virgil leaned against his free hand, watching him write a few lines. Then he pulled down another book from his ‘Current’ shelf, which was right above his desk, and opened it. Without the stimulation of writing, his hands started wandering. Spinning the pen, rubbing against the edge of the desk, drawing idle, repetitive lines, or just slowly clenching and unclenching in a fist. 

And then a hand brushed over Virgil. He remembered the first time it had happened. He’d been terrified, frozen between the belief that Logan wouldn’t hurt him and the fear that he would. Now, though, he found it quite pleasant. Logan stroked a finger over his head and down his back, and then cupped his hand around Virgil. His fingers slowly wandered over Virgil, rubbing and poking softly, or turning him around or sometimes even upside down. If Virgil was ever uncomfortable, he just had to wiggle down to the table again. Even with as little attention as Logan was giving him, he rarely made the same mistake twice.

“I’ve missed this,” Logan said, a while later. “It’s become more and more rare.”

Virgil was, as per usual, feeling rather sleepy, and very calm and content. He draped over Logan’s hand. “Do we need to schedule it in?”

“That is a possibility. Though, the spontaneity has been a large part of the appeal.”

Virgil nodded, fighting back a yawn. “Maybe I should schedule it. It can still be a surprise to you.”

Logan smiled softly, temporarily abandoning his work. “You are very considerate to think of it that way. But I wouldn’t want you to hold yourself to a schedule if it would make it less enjoyable for you.”

Virgil waved the concern away, the yawn forcing its way out of his mouth. “I can make it a flexible schedule. Like a ‘whenever I feel like it every tuesday’ type of thing.”

Logan smiled fondly, rubbing his thumb against Virgil’s hair. Virgil leaned into the touch.

“Would you like to nap in my pocket?”

Virgil grinned. “That’d be amazing. Just hang out in here a while longer, ok?”

“Am I allowed to ask why?”

“Only if I’m allowed to say I won’t tell you.”

Logan chuckled, and picked Virgil up, dropping him into his chest pocket. Hearing his heartbeat was still strange, but not nearly as much as it had been the first few times, and it lulled Virgil to sleep.


	59. Platform

  * •^*^••



**59**

**Platform**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 25 and 43)

Patton stood, hands on his hips, grinning broadly. He was just so proud of himself. Really, no one could blame Virgil for the chuckle. 

“I can reach them for watering now!” Patton said proudly, touching the plants in the hanging baskets. “And I don’t even need a stool!”

Virgil was struggling, and failing, to keep his laughter in. 

Patton at first pouted, but then he looked down at himself and started laughing also. 

He had made his own platform shoes. They were a solid foot tall, and not exactly shoe-like. 

Virgil burst into belly laughs, and Patton laughed so hard he fell over, and then kept laughing on the floor. 

It was a long time before the two of them had spent the last of the giggles. Virgil climbed up on top of Patton’s chest. 

“What do you really think of them?” Patton asked. 

Virgil chuckled one more time, putting a hand to his sore stomach. “They certainly get you up there.”

Patton picked a foot up in the air. “It’s heavy.” He was silent for a minute, just enjoying laying on the floor. “Oh!”

“What?”

“What if you got on my head, and I stood up with these? You’d be so tall!”

Virgil considered. “Only if you stand up first. We don’t know how you’ll stand up from the floor in them yet anyway.”

Patton frowned down at the shoes. “Ok. Back away, I don’t want to hurt you if I fall.”

Virgil slid down and ran away far enough that Patton couldn’t fall on him. 

The process of standing brought more laughter, and many groans and holding their poor, very sore stomachs. It was all gangly, like a giraffe trying to stand. But finally, Patton made it, holding tight to the doorframe for support. He leaned down, putting his hand as low as it would go. 

Virgil jumped, and managed to snag his finger, and Patton pulled him up. 

“Ready?” Patton asked. 

Virgil nodded excitedly. Patton lifted him up and put him on top of his head, and straightened up to his tallest. 

Virgil stretched his arms out to the sides, feeling larger and safer than he ever did this high up. 

“Virgil’s king of the world!” Patton said in a slight singsong. 

“King of the world!” Virgil echoed, hoping his voice didn’t betray the bright blush invading his face. 


	60. Sneak

  * •^*^••



**60**

**Sneak**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, and 55.)

(When Shadows Bloom)

Virgil had to be very, very careful. He didn’t mind sneaking around, but what he really hated was going out in the open. Logan was sitting on his shoulder, and that was very comforting and steadying, but he still was rather shaky as he went up to the shopkeeper. It was simple. Bread. That was it. Nothing more. Not suspicious. Just ask for bread, pay for bread, and leave. 

And it went well. 

Until he went outside, and someone screamed. 

“Black magic!”

Virgil froze, and then went invisible, bolting away and into the darkest, shadiest place he could find. Logan very nearly fell off, and just flew to keep up with him, being sure to keep a hand touching him to stay invisible as well. 

Virgil ducked behind an old water barrel in an alley, curling up small.

“-gil, Virgil.” It was more the tug of his name than the voice that made him pay attention to Logan. “There you are. You’re alright. They haven’t chased you. Breath.”

Virgil took a few jerky breaths before he could breathe smoothly again. “How’d they know?”

Logan sighed. “Well, your clothes may have had a part in it, though they look more like rags than a Shadow Mage’s clothes… Were you holding onto a shadow again?”

Virgil shook his head, and then realized that the pleasant pressure curling up around his legs was probably shadows that he’d been unconsciously calling to comfort him. “Oh.”

Logan patted his forehead gently. “It’s alright. If these people are willing to call you out over something like that, they aren’t the kind of people we want to stay near. We’ll move on.”

Virgil nodded. 

“You know, you could also just get big and scary, and then people’d leave you alone.” A voice suddenly said.

Virgil let out a loud squeak, jumping up onto the barrel. 

“How can you see us!?” Logan yelled.

From further in the alley, a very dirty boy grinned, showing off gapped teeth. “I’m immune to magic.”

“I-Immune?” Logan repeated. “That isn’t possible.”

“Yeah it is! My name’s Remus, try and get me to behave!”

Logan frowned. “Uh... come over here, Remus.”

Remus just grinned. “See? Nobody can make me do anything!”

“Can you not tell people that you saw us here? Please?” Virgil asked.

Remus shrugged. “If I can see more of your magic. Is it really Black Magic?”

Virgil got down off the barrel, shaking his head. 

“Awww…. Well, if you want it to be a secret, you should probably not do it here, but I’m coming with you so I don’t miss it!”


	61. Cold

  * •^*^••



**61**

**Cold**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, and 58)

(Tiny Tenants)

Unfortunately, even with how good a human bean Logan was, he couldn’t control the weather, and he couldn’t seem to control his heater either. It was an unexpected cold snap, and the heater had yet again cut off.

Virgil had no problems seeking Logan up and curling into his pockets, or directly against him, but the other borrowers were far less trusting.

Patton wrapped up in his blankets, and started picking his way down from his house up above the cabinet to Dee and the twins’s house, which was behind the baseboard in the kitchen. 

He knocked on the door. From inside there was a rustling, grunting sound, and then a sigh. 

“Let yourself in, please.”

Patton opened the door and found a whole nest of blankets right in the middle of the floor, with Dee being smothered by the sleeping twins. Dee chuckled slightly. 

“I can’t really get up. They practically hibernate whenever it gets cold, and if they manage to catch me I’m just stuck until they wake up.”

Patton hid a giggle behind his blanket. 

Dee opened his arms as much as was possible with a boy laying on each one. “Want to join us? It’s freezing.”

Patton very much did. “If you don’t mind…”

“Not at all,” Dee said, his slight joking tone gone from his voice for a moment. “You can lay right on top. These two probably wouldn’t wake up if the whole cabinet tipped over on us.”

Patton did feel slightly awkward, but between the cold, and the invitation, and the possibility of cuddling, he soon was laying on top of Dee, trying not to wake the twins up.

A bit later, the twins woke up on their own, tore through the house with almost a manic energy, while Dee just sighed, and then returned to the pile. Patton was then very thoroughly cuddled, trapped inside the blanket nest whether he liked it or not. Though really, he did like it very much. It made him feel young and safe again. 


	62. Soft

  * •^*^••



**62**

**Soft**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, 55 and 60.)

(When Shadows Bloom)

  
  


Virgil went out to the woods beyond the town. He was tired of traveling. Even if it just lasted a short time again, he’d rather just build another hut. Maybe he could try to find a plant fairy, and find some way to pay them to shore up his house like Patton had.

Remus was still following them, intent on seeing Virgil’s power. 

Finally Virgil stopped and sat down on a stone. “You still want to see?”

Remus bounced up and down, grinning. “Yeah!”

Well, Virgil couldn’t say the kid wasn’t cute. He gave him a small smile back. He decided on using the shadow of a tree nearby. Tree shadows were large, and tended to be calmer than many others. He coaxed it to him, wrapping it up into a little ball. 

“Be gentle,” he cautioned, handing it to Remus. 

Remus’s eyes were wide with awe. “It’s so soft!” He rolled the ball from hand to hand, and it started unraveling. 

That was strange, usually they had no problem staying in a different form for quite a long time. Perhaps it had to do with his immunity. 

Soon the shadow had leaked between Remus’s fingers and flowed back to its tree. 

Remus looked back up at Virgil. “Can you do another one? I can be gentle, did you see? I was gentle.”

Virgil ruffled up his hair. “Sure. You did good being gentle.”

The kid practically vibrated with happiness, flinging his arms around and jumping until Virgil had the shadow ready.

Virgil made several more shadows into little shapes for Remus to play with, and finally sent him home before the sun set. 

“You’ve fed a puppy,” Logan commented drily. “He’ll be back tomorrow.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Not now, you don’t. What about later, when the town sends someone after you? Or when we have to leave? You can’t drag him through that.”

Virgil frowned. “I can’t… but… Logan, I don’t want to just push him away! You know, you didn’t push me away, when you could’ve once you had my name.”

Logan frowned too. “That’s different,” he said, but his tone made it clear that he understood exactly how similar it was. 

  * •^*^••



Remus sat in his little nest, happy that the stars were out. They made shadows cover him up, and Remus grabbed at the shadows, hoping to feel again the warm softness. He wondered if Virgil had somewhere as comfy as his nest, or if his was maybe more comfortable. But he didn’t have nest-making things. He could just be sleeping on the ground. 

Well, Remus was not going to let that happen. He could share his nest. He got up, and rolled up the blankets, tying them into rolls and tying the rolls together and picking up the whole bundle. He was pretty sure he could find his way back to where he’d last seen Virgil, and hopefully Virgil was still there. 

It was harder than he would have thought, though, and when he finally found the spot, Virgil wasn’t there at all. Remus threw down the blankets. It wasn’t fair. This  _ always  _ happened! Every time he tried to be nice something bad happened. He really was bad luck. 

Remus coiled the blankets around him, not bothering to make a proper nest. He’d just take them back tomorrow anyway. He sulked into the blankets, and ended up going to sleep angry. 

  * •^*^••



When Virgil found Remus the next morning, and heard his story, he sent Logan a look that they both knew meant ‘I’m adopting and no one can stop me’ and Logan had much the same look to send right back. 


	63. Exploration

  * •^*^••



**63**

**Exploration**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, and 61)

(Tiny Tenants)

  
  


Roman peeked around the corner. The human— Logan, was just sitting at his desk, reading some old books like he had been for hours it seemed. 

Roman nodded at Remus, who ran up with the hook. Dee kept their hooks well hidden away, but he left his own in more easily reached places. And he’d finally fallen asleep. 

They were very good at being sneaky. Very, very good. The human didn’t even notice them before they were all the way up on his desk. They even surprised him a bit, walking out to where he could see them. 

“Good afternoon.”

They both nodded politely, still a bit worried about talking to him without an adult around. 

“Did you need something?”

“Well, we were going to explore, but we’ve been all through the walls, and you were the last thing to explore here,” Roman said, his voice only quavering a tiny bit. 

Remus was more bold, going right up to the human’s hand and giving it a shove. “What’s that wrestling thing you do with Virgil? Can I do it too?”

“It isn’t exactly wrestling, but I wouldn’t be opposed,” Logan said. 

Remus clambered over his hand, tugging at his fingers. “Oh, come on, it’s no fun if you just sit here all limp. Grab me!” 

Roman’s heart jumped up into his throat when the human really did grab Remus, but Remus was laughing, so it must be fine. Remus was climbing and flipping and hanging off of his fingers, and the human was getting a small smile. His eyes shifted to Roman. 

“Would you like a turn as well?”

Roman shook his head. “Maybe next.”

“It’s fun!” Remus exclaimed, cackling laughter as he hung upside down by Logan’s grip on his ankles. 

Roman had been more interested in Logan’s pens anyway. He had everything perfectly color-coded, and Roman longed to use that color himself. 

“Would you like to draw, Roman?” 

Roman was startled by the use of his name. He was most often just one of the twins, and it felt different to have his name called, especially by a human. He nodded slightly. 

Logan got him a clean sheet of paper, and tipped the entire organizer onto its side so Roman could reach. 

“Thank you. Um… Logan.”

“You’re very welcome, Roman. Please return the pens to their correct place as you finish with them.” 

Roman nodded very seriously. 

It was a while later that he and Remus switched, and Remus even got a whole separate paper, so that Roman’s drawing wouldn’t be messed up. Logan grew even larger in the minds of the both twins, and they firmly decided that they liked him. 

Roman quite enjoyed the wrestling, or whatever it was, though his little shrieks when Logan picked him up were slightly less fun-filled than Remus’s had been. 

  * •^*^••



The twins were gone. Dee cursed. He never should’ve let himself sleep while they were awake! They were his responsibility! 

He searched frantically, growing much more concerned when he couldn’t find his hook. 

When he finally saw them, his heart nearly stopped. Logan had one in each hand, and they were struggling to get down. 

“STOP!” Dee shrieked, his voice going high and thin with fear. 

Logan turned to look at him, setting the twins down slowly. 

Nothing mattered but getting them safe. Dee hurried to reach the desk, and the twins slid down a string and started running toward him as well. 

Dee grabbed them each by an arm and dragged them into the safety of the walls before he broke down. 

“Why would you go out there?! Alone! Anything could’ve happened! Are you alright?!”

They didn’t seem hurt, but with the tears blurring his vision he couldn’t tell for sure. 

“We’re fine, Dee. He didn’t hurt us.” Roman promised, hugging close to Dee. 

“Yeah, Logan’s awesome!” Remus said. 

As happy as he was that they weren’t hurt, this was too much, and Dee broke down in tears. 

“Don’t do that. Don’t— you can’t do that to me. Please, you scared me so bad!”

Dee was sandwiched in a careful hug. 

“We’re sorry,” Remus said. “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

“We were just exploring,” Roman said. “Sorry for scaring you.”

Dee gripped them tightly. If either of them left his sight for the next week he was going to scream. 


	64. Ignorance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Past abuse involving lighters.

  * •^*^••



**64**

**Ignorance**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61 and 63)

(Tiny Tenants)

“He would never do anything like that! He didn’t, I talked to him,” Virgil insisted. 

Dee crossed his arms. “It honestly does not matter. I will not be willfully ignorant of what could happen.”

“Well, what do you want to do about it? I’m sure you’ve already banned the twins from leaving your side.”

Dee breathed in deliberately. “I’m going to talk to him. Myself. I would appreciate if you would keep the boys safe while I’m gone. I can also ask Patton to help.”

Virgil shook his head slowly. “No, I can handle them for a little bit. Just… don’t yell at Logan. He didn’t do anything wrong, and, and he’s done so much  _ right _ !” 

Dee nodded stiffly. “I am well aware of what he’s done.”

Virgil nodded again, stepping out of the way for Dee to get past. 

Dee went out, not surprised to see Logan making dinner. He went up inside the wall, and popped out of a door just at the counter level. 

“Ah, Dee.” Logan said immediately. “I wish to apologize for any fear I may have caused. I’ve considered how the situation would have appeared, and want to reiterate that I would never wish harm to any of you.”

Dee was a bit surprised by the immediate apology, but it didn’t change his decision. 

“I don’t want you to interact with the twins unless I’m there to supervise.”

Logan thought for a moment, and then nodded. “I would make a condition. You must tell them as well. I won’t ignore them if they don’t know I’ve been asked to do so.”

That was… actually a very reasonable condition. And he hadn’t pushed to interact with them. Dee wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. He’d both expected a response similar to this, and also expected something very different. 

Dee tossed out some idle comment about the food Logan was making. Logan easily answered, tossing back a question about something equally innocuous. That started up a conversation, slow, and not meaning much of anything. It was like a game of ping pong, where instead of trying to score a point, they were each just trying to keep the ball moving, and weren’t in any hurry. 

Finally Logan pulled the pot off of the stove. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

Dee nodded. The conversation had been surprisingly enjoyable, but it was just a stalling method before he got to the thing he felt he had to do. 

There was a bit of silence, where Dee pointedly did not look anywhere near Logan’s face as he ate. But in not looking at his face, he saw his thumb running back and forth over his fingers in a repetitive motion. 

“I—“ his voice came out in a squeak, and he took a deliberate breath, trying again. “I want to experience what it is you’ve been doing.”

Logan looked between Dee and his hand. “If it makes you uncomfortable—“

“No.” Dee was determined. Those boys  _ would  _ try to do it again, no matter what obstacles he put in their way, and he had to be sure it was really safe. He took a few steps towards Logan’s hand. “I want to try.”

Logan nodded slowly, hesitantly. “If you become uncomfortable, tell me, and I will stop immediately.”

Dee nodded stiffly, and stiffened even more as the hand came around him. It was fine. A bit nerve-wracking, but fine. Being pushed a bit, lifted a bit, prodded slightly. He didn’t enjoy himself, certainly, but there was nothing dangerous about this, and it matched what he had seen before. 

But then Logan ruffled his hair with a finger and suddenly Dee’s vision was filled with an approaching lighter. He let out a terrified cry as his legs gave out, but the lighter never left his vision, coming closer and closer, no matter how much he screamed and begged. 

Suddenly something heavy and cold and wet dropped over him, turning everything to black and shutting off the vision. Dee gasped, trying to get his breath back. 

“I apologize, I didn’t know what else to do,” Logan said quietly. “I’ve put a wet washcloth over you. I can remove it or leave it, whichever you would prefer.”

“L-leave it…” Dee said shakily, wrapping it closer to himself, and relishing the cold damp feeling. 

“I believe I’ve triggered some kind of traumatic flashback. I’m truly sorry.”

“Y-you d-didn’t— didn’t know.” Dee said, starting to shake as the adrenaline left his system. He was very grateful that he couldn’t see Logan directly. 

“Should I try to get Virgil?”

“No, I’ll, I’ll be fine.” 

Dee held the blanket around his shoulders and sat up. It wasn’t real. Not anymore. It happened in the past. 

“Is there anything can do?” Logan asked. 

Dee shook his head. “Don’t use lighters. And… and probably don’t touch my head.”

Logan nodded seriously. 

Dee stood up. He wanted to get back home. He wrapped the washcloth tighter, until his clothes were damp, and then let it go, leaving without a word. 

Logan didn’t try to stop him, or speak to him, which Dee appreciated. Interacting with humans was always miserable in some form or other, but at least Logan tried to make it as bearable as possible. 


	65. Cage

  * •^*^••



**65**

**Cage**

  * •^*^••



(Roman has been a captive of giants for quite a while)

“Sing,” the king commanded. 

Roman, who was currently hanging upside down off of his perch in the cage, quickly pulled himself back up. “Sing what?” He asked, hoping to buy himself a few seconds to get his breath back properly. 

The king didn’t answer for several seconds. “Lilies.”

Roman but back a groan. Lilies was a  _ dull  _ song. But it wasn’t like he was in any position to complain. Soon his voice was raised, trying to infuse every bit of life and feeling he could into the song. 

The king waved, and the doors opened, letting in the next of his subjects. The man seemed rather flighty, and was dressed in a pleasant blue. 

He came and bowed. “You sent for me, sire?”

Now that was a surprise. The king barely wanted other people around him at all, much less calling for them. Roman didn’t recognize the man at all, so he must be new too. 

“I did. I’m in need of a new caretaker for my pet.” The king said, gesturing to Roman. 

Ignoring the insult of being called a pet, Roman seized on the ‘new caretaker’ part of the statement. This stranger was going to be put in charge of him? And, perhaps more importantly, Virgil would no longer be? What had happened?! Last he knew, the king had been pleased with Virgil. 

He tuned out of the instructions the king was giving the man, focused only on keeping his song going to the end despite the panicked swirling of his thoughts. 

Once he’d finished, he had enough presence of mind to hear the king again. 

“Take him with you now, and I will send his previous caretaker this evening to answer any questions you may have.” 

The man came near Roman’s cage, looking downright upset. Roman wished he’d paid better attention to what they’d been saying, but for now he just gripped tightly to the bars and tried not to look at all afraid. 

By the time Roman’s cage was set down in his room the man was trying to hide tears. Roman was getting to feel bad for him instead of afraid of him. 

“Your um… your singing was very pretty,” the man said, opening the cage door. His voice was all strained, and, as much as Roman was concerned for himself, he couldn’t just leave this man like this. 

“Thank you,” he said sincerely. “Are you… alright?”

The man just stared at him for a moment, and then his lip wobbled and he burst into tears. “No. I—I didn’t want to leave home! A-and I never wanted to  _ stay  _ here! I thought it was— was just… I don’t know!”

Roman nodded sympathetically. So they were in the same situation. Only the king hadn’t even given this man the dignity of a kidnapping, he’d made him come on his own two feet. 

“At least you don’t have to stay in a cage,” Roman offered, trying his best to help him feel better. 

But the man just dropped his head onto his arms, sobbing harder. 

Roman clambered down the side of the cage, which was really meant for giant birds, and out the door. He gave the man’s head a few pats, and settled down, realizing that this would probably go on for quite a while. 

The man had nearly cried himself out when the door opened and Virgil peeked in. 

“Virgil!” Roman exclaimed, jumping up immediately. 

Virgil rushed over and scooped him up, holding him close to his face in a hug. “Are you alright?”

“I am. And you?”

“I’m fine. I… I tried to get the king to let you go, so he’s kicking me out.”

Roman hugged him even more tightly. “I both love you and hate you for doing that.”

Virgil gave a mirthless chuckle. “Yeah, me too. So who’s this?”

“Your replacement.”

“I’m Patton,” the man said, scrubbing at his face. “Sorry, I’m just…” 

“Nah, man, I get it. I’m supposed to answer any questions and I really don’t have much time left, but really, Roman knows just about everything.” Virgil’s demeanor switched instantly from sympathetic to aggressive. “But if you dare do anything to hurt him I swear I will commit treason to get you back for it.”

Patton lifted his hands. “I would never, I promise. I-I don’t even want to be here.”

Virgil nodded firmly, and hugged Roman a bit tighter to his face. Roman didn’t mind, not when he didn’t know when he’d get to see Virgil again. 

A heavy knock on the door made them all jump. 

“Find some way to write, at least,” Roman demanded. 

Virgil nodded, his face tight and pale. He set Roman back down on the table. 

“I’ll take care of him,” Patton promised. 

Virgil nodded, and then walked out the door. 

Roman held up until the footsteps faded from his hearing, and then the first tear slid down his face. He fought hard against the intense dread flooding him, but he didn’t know where Virgil was going. He’d only let himself believe what Virgil had said, that he was getting kicked out, but that was definitely the kind of thing Virgil would lie about. Anything could be happening to him and Roman wouldn’t know. Certainly wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. 

A hiccup was innocent enough, but then it was followed by a rain of sobs, barely held back despite his best efforts. Patton tried to comfort him, but he shoved him away with a wordless scream. 


	66. Curiosity

  * •^*^••



**66**

**Curiosity**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, 55, 60 and 62.)

(When Shadows Bloom)

Logan suddenly was hit with a burst of curiosity. He started kicking up a little breeze, blowing Virgil’s hood right off his head. Virgil sent him a fondly exasperated look, rolling his eyes. 

Logan sent the breeze towards Remus, but once it ran over him it started wandering away and dispersing, not listening to him anymore. 

Logan glided forward and landed on Remus’s head. “Virge, can you take his shadow away from him?”

Virgil cocked his head to the side a bit, and made a coaxing gesture towards Remus. Remus stepped forward, but his shadow didn’t react at all. 

“I guess not,” Virgil said with a shrug. 

“Can you take your own shadow?” Remus asked. 

Virgil held out his hand, and his shadow sprang into it immediately, condensed into a small humanoid form. “Yeah. My shadow likes me though, and won’t stay away from me for long.”

“That’s so cool!” Remus said, his voice awed. 

“Remus…” Virgil started, glancing up at Logan. “I have something important—“

Remus suddenly, and very loudly, interrupted. “Can I hold your shadow?”

Virgil handed him the shadow. “I had a question—“

“Oh, look, it’s going back now!”

“Remus…”

Remus suddenly plopped to the ground, knocking Logan off of his perch. When Logan got his bearings, he saw Remus glaring at the dirt, and, even more unexpectedly, tears in his eyes. 

“I  _ know _ ,” he said bitterly. “I’m bad luck and you don’t want me to stay around cause I’ll make things bad.” 

“Remus, no—“

Remus glared up at Virgil, his lip trembling but his face set angrily. “No matter how nice you try to say it that’s what you mean!”

“I don’t, Remus, please—“ 

Remus got up and ran, choked sobs escaping him. 

“Wait, Remus!” Virgil looked to Logan helplessly. 

Logan started after Remus immediately, and soon Virgil was running after them both. 

Virgil tackled Remus to the ground, like the idiot Logan had always known he was. 

“Let me go!” Remus shrieked, kicking wildly. 

“Let me finish!” Virgil yelled right back. “I wanted you to come with me you dumb kid!”

Logan winced at the phrasing, especially since he knew exactly where Virgil had learned it. It certainly hadn’t been his mother’s influence. But it worked. Remus stilled. 

“You want me… to come with you?”

“I do!” Virgil said, still nearly yelling. “I know this has been your home all your life, but you didn’t seem happy and I wanted to take you with me when I leave.”

Remus clung to Virgil's shirt and started wailing. 

Virgil suddenly looked entirely lost again, searching Logan out. Logan flew down to land on his shoulder. 

“I believe this would be a yes.”


	67. Narrow

  * •^*^••



**67**

**Narrow**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, 55, 60, 62 and 66. About two~three weeks later)

(When Shadows Bloom)

Trying to negotiate peace between the dragon shifter and the town had been like trying to walk on a narrow pole in midwinter, with snow flying so thickly you could barely see your own feet, and wind threatening to blow you off at the slightest chance. But, maybe, just maybe, they’d done it. Or maybe not peace, but truce. And that was probably all that could reasonably be hoped for. 

Roman flopped onto the bed facedown and let out a long groan. 

Patton flew down to land on his head and give it a few soft pats. 

“I’m proud of you, kiddo. You’re doing great.”

Roman groaned again, rolling over. “All your proud of me and wanting me to be the best knight has made my life really hard, you know that?” He ruffled up Patton’s hair with a finger. 

Patton giggled and held onto the finger in a hug. “But you’re doing it. You’re trying so hard even though it’s not easy, and that makes me the most proud.”

Roman smiled and yawned. “After we’re done here, I’m taking a vacation for at least a week.”

“You’d deserve it, kiddo.” Patton flew down and tugged on the blanket, trying to pull it up over Roman. 

Roman let out a tired version of his boisterous laugh. “I haven’t even taken my boots off yet. Wanna just cuddle with me instead?”

Patton gave an enthusiastic nod, flying up to tuck himself under Roman’s chin. 

Suddenly there was a commotion outside, and someone banged on the door. “Sir Roman!”

Roman let out another groan. “Coming!”

They went out to find many of the townspeople crowding around a clot of shadows. There was a lot of screaming and angry yelling. 

There was a furious wrestling pile in the middle.

“Hey! Break it up!” Roman yelled, charging right into the middle. 

Slowly the townspeople started backing away, other than the ones wrestling, which Roman started pulling away. 

And then, “You! What’s your name… Pat, help me.”

“Virgil! Stop!” Patton said. 

Quickly the wrestling pile turned into a dog pile on Virgil as he stopped moving. Roman just kept pulling people off, but there were quite a few of them. 

And then suddenly a child’s hand closed over Patton, squeezing painfully. “Let Virgil go!”

Virgil, who by all rights should not have been able to move, somehow got up and grabbed the child’s arm, pain written all over his face. 

“Remus. No.”

Patton wheezed, struggling to breathe.

The child dropped Patton, and Virgil let out a pained sigh, dropping to the ground. 

Roman carefully scooped Patton up. “Are you ok?!”

Patton gave him a weak thumbs up. 

“Let Virgil go!” The child insisted, pushing at Roman. 

Patton wasn’t sure if Virgil would still be in pain from pushing so hard against the name magic. He hadn’t even known it was possible to push back that hard! But just in case, he mumbled, “Virgil, you’re released.”

Virgil let out another painful sounding breath. 

“Wait, didn’t you have a fairy with you?” Roman asked. 


	68. Rescue

  * •^*^••



**68**

**Rescue**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, 55, 60, 62, 66, and 67)

(When Shadows Bloom)

Well, it turned out that Remus’s ‘bad luck’ wasn’t entirely a lie. 

Virgil was trying to be fast. He’d heard of ‘Sir Roman’ and was just praying that it was the same one. Gathering up the shadows beneath him, and using them to propel himself forward, he could move much, much faster than he ever could walking, or even running. Unfortunately, while he was carrying Remus, the shadows that left scattered wildly, instead of just calmly heading back to their objects. And this meant that he looked like a massive prickly ball of black magic, flashing darkness as he tore across the country. 

He finally stopped at the town, and the shadows fled, some still retaining their semi-solid form. He cringed as he heard several thumps and the shatter of glass. 

It was far worse, however, when people started screaming and charging at him. 

  * •^*^••



It was only after they were all inside, and away from the rest of the town, that the story came spilling out. 

“We were trying to make a home in the port city, because I’d heard they were more tolerant. He got caught in a fairy trap. I tried to rescue him, but we just got kicked out of the city. They’re going to try to sell him, and I can’t get in, and I don’t have any money. I-I know you hate me, probably even more now, but you have a fairy with you too, and…” Virgil got all choked up. 

“Please. I’ll find some way to pay you back. I don’t care what you want, I’ll give it, I’ll do it. Please help me get him back.”

Virgil’s head was ducked down, a subtle tremor in his shoulders and a not so subtle tremor in his voice. He was… so broken-sounding. There was absolutely no way Roman could say no, even without Patton’s very, very clear heartbreak for Virgil. 

He sighed. So much for that vacation. “Yeah, I’ll get your fairy back.”

Virgil’s head came back up, his eyes wide and shining from unshed tears. He nodded, all too clearly trying not to cry. “Thank you.”

The kid next to him was still glaring at Roman, but also mumbled out a “thanks.”

  * •^*^••



“Patton, I’m truly sorry that Remus hurt you,” Virgil said. 

“I’ll be alright, kiddo,” Patton said cheerily, trying to straighten out his wings. He’d have some bruises, but really it wasn’t that bad. And he couldn’t be mad at the poor kid for trying to help his friend. Patton would’ve done the same. “How about you? That was some pretty impressive willpower back there.”

Virgil ducked his head trying to hide the blush. “I’m kinda used to it.”

Patton frowned. “Why? What did your fairy do to you?”

Virgil shrugged. “He’s just trying to keep me safe. We disagree pretty strongly sometimes.”

Well, it didn’t seem very nice. “What about Remus?”

“He’s immune.” Virgil chuckled fondly. “No one can tame that rascal.”

“It looks like you did.”

Virgil waved his hands around. “No, he just likes me. I can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want to.”

Patton chuckled. “That sounds like me and Roman.”

  * •^*^••



Logan glared at every one of the passers-by. He would make himself as unpleasant as he could, to give Virgil more time to get back to him. Or… or maybe he’d just leave. No. No, Virgil would never do that. It’d only been a few days. 

And then Logan recognized someone. There was a brief flash of relief before he remembered where he recognized him from, and ducked back into the shadowy back of the cage. But it was too late. The knight had seen him. 

He came straight up to the cage, and picked it up. 

“Unhand me!” Logan demanded, only to be ignored. 

No matter what he said, he was ignored and talked over by all the humans, until a price had been reached and he was carried out of the shop. And then he was still ignored all the way out of the city. 

Once Roman got up on his horse, he finally properly looked at Logan. “Sorry about that. I was worried they might try and make me pay more than I had if they knew I knew you.”

Logan sneered. “Of course, because you care about me,” he said caustically. 

Roman got an annoyed little frown. “Well it’s not like I hate you. Virgil sent me to rescue you, you could at least be nice.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Roman sighed. 


	69. Bottom

  * •^*^••



**69**

**Bottom**

  * •^*^••



(Heh)

(You know, I haven’t done a tiny Mer one yet.)

Remus sank slowly to the bottom of the tank, drifting slightly from side to side. He shot up to the top, and drifted down slowly. It was practically the only thing to do, other than pretend he was strangling the pebbles to death with his tentacles. It was still pretty boring though.

But finally the bundle of blankets on the bed shifted and a groan came out. “ _ Please,  _ stop splashing. It can’t be even six yet.”

“Lolo, you’re awake!” Remus cheered, shooting back up to the top. 

There was another groan. “I’d rather not be. Please be quiet.”

“Oh, come on! It’s been morning forever! I’m boooored!”

“You’re mostly nocturnal, Remus, even if I get up for you now you’ll fall asleep in a few hours.” Logan raised his head. “And it is not morning. The sun hasn’t even risen yet.”

“But I’m bored! Pleeease?”

There was a much louder groan. “I already stayed up late with you, I can’t wake up this early. Please, Remus, let me sleep.”

Remus pouted, sinking back to the bottom of his tank. Logan was really no fun. Well, not in the mornings. At night he was awesome!

He drifted from side to side, waiting patiently and quietly. But he just couldn’t stand it! He quietly swam up to the top, and squirted a small stream of water at the bed, aiming for Logan’s head. The first one clearly didn’t hit, but there was a shifting after the second one, and Logan picked his head up just in time to get hit in the face with the third. 

“REMUS!” 

Remus burst into raucous laughter, spinning around in his tank. Logan loomed over him, and he had enough sense to duck down below the water level. Logan would never  _ really  _ hurt him, but get him mad enough and he might just try something. 

Like putting the lid on the tank. 

“Awwww, Lo, no… I’m sorry, take it off.”

“You are most certainly not sorry,” Logan said, his voice clipped and angry as he draped a blanket over the entire tank. 

Remus heard an angry thump as Logan plopped back into bed. 

“Boo…” he said quietly. “You’re no fun at all.”


	70. Grow

  * •^*^••



**70**

**Grow**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4,5,6,11,12,13,15,23,38,39,42,44 and 56. BUT! This is just a crack one shot. It is not canon to the series)

(Now called Tiny Artists)

  
  


“Ready, Patton?” Virgil asked. 

Patton nodded seriously, but he was bouncing up on his toes in excitement. 

“I don’t know that I like this,” Roman said hesitantly. 

Virgil handed the teeny bottle to Patton, who downed it immediately and just as quickly started to grow. 

“I’m getting bigger. I’m getting bigger!!!”

Virgil held out his hands for Patton to grab onto as he grew and grew, finally topping out around the height of Virgil’s shoulder. 

“Ahhhhhh! I’m so big!!!”

“Yeah, you are,” Virgil said encouragingly. 

And then Patton was bounding through the house, stomping with enough vigor to shake the floor. He ran into the kitchen, and ran back out, carrying the bag of sugar above his head in two hands. 

“Look!!!” 

Before Virgil or Roman could reply, he ran back, and grabbed up a plate of leftovers, and stood up on the kitchen table. 

“Look!!!”

Virgil offered a hand to Roman. “I’m beginning to think that potion must have had caffeine in it.”

Patton ran around the house, bouncing with every step. He was picking up everything to show them, and bounding off to something else. 

“Oh!” He lifted at the bottom of the couch. It lifted about half an inch. “I can move it!!!”

He ran to Virgil. “I’m so big!”

Virgil chuckled and ruffled his hair. “Big and hyper.”

“What else can you do?” Roman asked, wanting Patton to be able to do everything he wanted before the potion wore off. 

“I can…” Patton looked from side to side. “Oh!”

He wrapped Virgil in a bear hug, and then tried lifting. Virgil let out a screechy laugh. 

“Pat! We’ll fall!”

Patton put him down, though he’d only had him a few inches in the air. “You’re not very heavy. Ohhhh! Roman, can I hold you??! I’ve never held anyone so small!”

Roman was still a bit shaken up from Virgil waving him around to keep balance. “You’d have to be calm. And sit down.”

Patton plopped down to the floor immediately, holding out his hands. 

Roman nodded, and Virgil handed him down to Patton. 

“You’re so tiny…” Patton said in awe. 

For as hyper as he had been, he was surprisingly gentle while holding Roman, and very careful. 

“Oh. Ohhh, I feel weird.”

“It might be wearing off now,” Virgil suggested. 

Pretty quickly after that, Patton started shrinking, carefully adjusting so he wouldn’t drop Roman. Once he was back to normal size, Roman scooped him up in a bridal carry. 

“Have fun, puffball?”

“I did.” Patton looked up at Virgil. “Can I do it again sometime?”

“Sometime.” 

Patton nodded happily, and yawned loudly. 

Virgil scooped the both of them up, and started one of Roman’s favorite movies. Patton was asleep before the first song ended. 


	71. Stomp

  * •^*^••



**71**

**Stomp**

  * •^*^••



(Remus is a giant)

Remus stomped across the countryside, watching the little humans scatter and run. It was fun! Stomp. Stomp. And they all ran away. 

A flash of a thought of stomping right on one crossed his mind, but he shook it away. 

“Remus!” A small voice yelled up at him. 

Remus looked down, surprised to see that it wasn’t a knight this time. Usually they sent knights to ‘defeat’ him, and he’d gotten very used to battles with Roman. 

“Hi there.”

The small human looked a little afraid, but not nearly as much as most of them were. “Pick me up. I’d like to talk to you on the same level.”

Now this was interesting. Remus snatched up the little man by the back of his shirt. He squirmed and squiggled the whole way up, and was in general far more fun than stomping around. 

“Ok. What did you want to talk about?”

“Do you call this on the same level?” The man asked, clutching at his shirt to keep himself inside it. 

Remus frowned. “I guess not.” 

He moved over to the cliff overlooking the village, and put the man on the edge. 

“Is that better?”

“Is it?”

Remus frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Is this on the same level as you?”

Remus sized himself up with the cliff. The man was more at chest-height, but there wasn’t any higher place to put him. Unless… Remus dropped to his knees, pleased to find that he was now on eye level with the man.

“This is the same level now,” he said proudly. 

“Wonderful. Now we may discuss. Do you think you’re more important than any of us in the village?

Remus tipped his head to the side. “I didn’t really think about that.”

“Then think about it.”

Remus frowned. Thinking about something like that wasn’t exactly his specialty. “Um… no.”

“Then what makes you think it’s ok to terrorize us?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t? Oh, the poor baby’s never done anything wrong, not even on accident.”

That was definitely sarcasm. Remus may not be terribly familiar with it, but it was terribly obvious. 

“Well, of course I mess up! I even mess up on purpose!”

The man just sighed heavily, and for a very long time. “Just stop. Stop scaring the people. You’re giving the little ones anxiety.”

“What else am I going to do? It’s not like you guys talk to me. Most of you guys anyway.”

The man waved his hand in an exasperated gesture. “I suppose I’ll be the sacrificial lamb, then. If you get the urge to terrorize the people, I’ll talk with you.”

Now that was quite the deal! “Alright. I like you already, so it would be fun to talk with you.”

The man nodded in a slightly patronizing way. “We may as well have a proper introduction, then. My name is Janus.”

“I’m Remus,” Remus said, holding his hand out for Janus to shake one finger. 


	72. Cooperate

  * •^*^••



**72**

**Cooperate**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 2 and 19. Deceit is still big mad.)

They’d eaten dinner, and Patton had stayed back with Deceit while he cleaned up. 

“I think, if we all cooperate, we can find a way to make us big again and get us back to the light side…” Patton said, more musing out loud than talking to Deceit. 

“Cooperate? Now? Now you want us to cooperate when it benefits you?”

Just from the tone, Patton could tell he’d slipped up again and made Deceit mad.

“Well, we’d be out of your hair—“

“No, now. Now, after you decided we weren’t good for Thomas, and sent us all down here, and had me keep us hidden all this time, now, when it suits you, you want me to open the door, and you want our help to get you back to your blessed little existence?!” Deceit had been getting closer and closer, and he slammed his hands down on the table, making Patton jump and tears spring to his eyes. 

Deceit suddenly deflated, sitting down and covering his face with a hand. “I apologize. In this situation it isn’t fair to have this discussion.”

Patton nodded, swiping the tears away. “I-I’m sorry too. I don’t really… I was young, but that isn’t really an excuse. I was wrong. I haven’t been down here very long, and everything is still scary, but you aren’t, aren't the kind of people I thought you were. If… Once we open that door, maybe we don’t close it again?”

“So that’s just it? An apology, and offer to be ‘roommates’ and it’ll all be good? Like it never even happened?”

Deceit’s voice was quiet, but that didn’t make his words cut any less. 

“No, I know we’d have to do more— I’d have to do more before everything gets better. I just don’t know what yet. I’d need your help, if you’re willing to give it.”

Deceit moved his hand away from his face to look down at Patton. “How am I supposed to know whether you’re really sincere?”

Patton looked down at his hands. “I-I don’t have anything. I do really mean it though.”

“Do you? What about when Remus gets violent? What about when I lie to your face, and I don’t make it an easy one? Will you still be so accepting?”

“I don’t—“

“What about when Virgil has an anxiety attack so bad it gets to Thomas, and Thomas didn’t even do anything? What then?”

“Well, I—“

“What happens when our fun becomes unbearable to you? When it seems disgusting, or perverse, and it’s right in your own living room?”

“I don’t know!” Patton yelled, covering his ears. “I don’t know!”

There was silence until Patton put his hands down and opened his eyes. 

“Well?”

“I don’t know, Deceit. It’s— it’ll depend, on what happens. I don’t know what I’ll do, or what I’ll think, or say. But, all I can promise is that I’ll try.”

“You’ll try what?”

“I’ll try to be fair, and include you all. I’ll definitely need help to work through this, and to help Thomas work through it too.”

Deceit finally gave a slow nod. “I suppose that’s all I can expect of you.”

Somehow that really hurt, but it was a start. Suddenly Patton felt a bit dizzy, and then toppled off the table, normal sized again. 


	73. Problem

  * •^*^••



**73**

**Problem**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63 and 64)

(Tiny Tenants)

It was… it was not a problem. Except that maybe it was. Patton paced back and forth, feeling the frown etch itself into his forehead. 

So what if he hadn’t used his porch while the human was in the room? He didn’t need to. But, that’s what it was for. That’s what Virgil and Dee spent all that time helping him for. To get comfortable around Logan. 

But… what if he didn’t  _ want _ to get comfortable around Logan? What if he just wanted to stay safe in the walls like it had always been before? Before some humans had to go and prove they existed. 

But how could he just throw away their time and effort like that? And even Logan had to have feelings, and what if Patton was upsetting him by never going around him? Oh, no, what if Patton was  _ upsetting  _ him???

Nope, Patton wouldn’t go out if Logan could be mad at him. But if staying in was why he was mad… agh! 

He wished Virgil was here. Virgil knew how to stop the terrible spiral of thinking. But Virgil and Dee and the twins had gone outside. It had sounded kind of fun, but also really dangerous. Patton didn’t want to even chance another human seeing him. 

So now he was just stuck pacing. The evidence was quickly mounting up in favor of going out onto his porch, but so was his fear and anger at the very idea of it. 

Finally he peeked out through the door. Logan was watching something on the tv, and not looking even a little bit at Patton. Patton crept out to the very middle of the porch, his whole body shaking. He’d just sit here, totally silent, for five minutes. That was it. Then he could go back inside. 

There was a soft, feminine voice, talking about the stars, and giant firey balls that looked nothing like stars, but still very impressive. It took till the very end of those five minutes for Patton to calm down and pay enough attention to realize that they  _ were  _ stars. 

Patton actually overstayed his time just a bit, watching till the program ended. Logan started flipping through channels, staying on each one for only a few seconds before moving to the next. Patton was about to head in when one popped up showing cookies. He didn’t know whether they were being made, or just eaten, he just saw cookies and let out a little ‘oh’ on accident. 

Logan somehow heard it immediately, and turned to look. Patton was instantly terrified again, racing back inside with a muffled shriek. 

  * •^*^••



Logan felt awful. He should’ve remembered not to look that way. It was just half a second, but that half a second was enough to terrify poor Patton. 

He had, however, caught onto the fact that Patton had made the sound as the cooking program came on. Patton should have plenty enough food that it wouldn’t be the mere sight of it, so it must be the type. Logan turned back to the screen. Cookies. 

He’d have to make some. 


	74. Raindrops

  * •^*^••



**74**

**Raindrops**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64 and 73)

(Tiny Tenants)

Virgil and Dee had mostly sat back, trying to keep the twins alive as they were determined to climb everything they saw, no matter how many times their height it was. 

Until the fat raindrops started falling, and any further climbing had been banned. Then the twins ran around, trying to stand directly beneath a drop as it fell.

Virgil was kind of impressed at how often they succeeded, but Dee just sighed. 

“If one of those drops hits just the wrong way they’ll end up breaking their necks.”

“Break my head clean off!” Remus said gleefully. “Dad  _ always  _ said that. Wouldn’t let us play in the rain even a little.”

Virgil was curious about their past, but didn’t want to ask and make them think about something they’d rather not. 

“Yeah, well I’m not your Dad,” Dee said. “But that doesn’t make him wrong.”

“Nah, you’re more like Mom anyway,” Roman said, dangling upside down from a stick he’d found that stuck up into the air at an angle. 

“Mama Dee!” Remus crowed, quickly turning it into a chant that Roman echoed. “Mama Dee, Mama Dee!”

Dee looked very annoyed for a moment, but he just shook his head. “Ignore them, if we react it’ll just go on longer.”

Virgil suppressed the small smile to nod solemnly. 

“We should probably head inside soon, before all of us get sopping wet,” Dee said. 

Virgil looked up at the sky, which was still growing darker. “Yeah, the rain will probably get heavier soon.”

Both boys immediately started up a protest of ‘aww!’ and ‘but it’s barely sprinkling!’ and ‘just a little more?’ But Dee soon had them rounded up and going into the house. 

Virgil had avoided the raindrops almost as successfully as the boys had caught them, and didn’t need to change clothes. He went right to see how Patton was doing, and noticed a surprisingly delicious smell pervading the house. Cookies?

And then he realized, as he got closer, that he could hear sobbing. He broke into a run, bursting into Patton’s house. 

Patton was curled up in his nest bed, almost hysterical. 

“What happened?! What’s wrong?!”

“H-he sa-aw me! He saw me a-and—and he knows I’m here— and he’s try-trying to lure me ou-out with cookies! He-he’s trying to catch m-me!”

Virgil picked Patton up partway, and Patton clung to him. “No, no Patton, he doesn’t want to catch you, I promise.”

“He does! He-he saw me! And he knows that I l-like cookies!”

“No, no, he’s not trying to catch you.”

“He is!” Patton wailed, sobbing into Virgil’s shirt. 

Virgil took a deep breath. He wasn’t certain that this was a panic attack, since it looked very different from the ones he had, but hopefully the same tricks Logan had taught him would work for Patton. 

“Patton, can you tell me something you can see?”

“W-what?”

“Something you can see.” Virgil brushed some of the damp hair out of Patton’s face. “You’ll have to open your eyes, ok?”

Patton opened his eyes. “I can see your shirt.”

“Good! Well done.” Virgil rubbed a hand gently on his back. “Can you give me four more things you can see?”

Patton pulled away just enough to look around. “The walls, and m-my bed, and you, and that crack that lets in some light.”

Virgil started deliberately breathing deeper and slower, hoping Patton would pick it up as they went. “That’s very good. How about four things you can hear?”

Patton nodded slightly. “Um, you, and the air conditioning, and the walls creaking, and me.”

Virgil smiled, pleased to see that Patton was calming down. “How about three things you can feel?”

Patton’s hand reached around. “There’s the blanket, and your arms, and my face is wet.”

Virgil offered the end of his shirt for Patton to wipe his face with, since it was already covered in tears anyway. “That’s very good. Can you taste two things?”

“Dust and salt.”

“There. Just one more, something you can smell.”

Patton’s face crumpled again. “Cookies shouldn’t be used for evil!”

Virgil grimaced, he should’ve avoided that one. “They aren’t. I promise Logan isn’t trying to trick you. I’ll get one for you, and bring it up here. You won’t even have to leave your house one bit.”

“But then why is he making them?” Patton asked. “You said he doesn’t like sweet things except jelly.”

“He might’ve made them for us. I like sweets, and those twins  _ really  _ like sweets.”

“But he only made them  _ after  _ he knew I liked them!”

“But,” Virgil countered. “I’ll get you anything you want, and he definitely knows that. He wouldn’t make a lure with such an easy way out like that.”

Patton nodded slowly. “But… what about when he does make a good one, and I can’t get out, and then he gets mad at me for trying, and—“

“Shhhh,” Virgil said, rocking Patton back and forth. “He doesn’t  _ want  _ to catch you. He wants you to be happy, just like I do.” 

Patton just shook his head. 

Virgil didn’t know what else he could say. “Do you want me to bring you up some cookie?”

Patton nodded. “Thank you.”


	75. Solitude

  * •^*^••



**75**

**Solitude**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 65)

  
  


Roman was in perfect solitude. It happened sometimes, but he’d never had someone other than himself to worry about. And all the climbing and hanging upside down that he normally did to occupy himself didn’t do anything to quiet his mind. 

“Virgil, you had  _ better _ be keeping yourself safe.”

But the empty room had no answer for him. 

Roman dropped down to the floor of the cage, almost enjoying the clang. It was real, and felt solid under his feet. 

The king would be back at some point, or send a servant to carry Roman to wherever he was. But for now, he was just left alone with his thoughts, and they weren’t exactly being nice. 

And if he didn’t feel helpless enough, his mind decided now would be a good time to remind him that he was literally in a cage. And that he’d been almost ok with it. 

What did that even say about him? Had he really stopped hoping for escape? 

Roman slumped down to the floor. He felt hollowed out, as if whatever had made him him had been tugged away and had left a hole. He just had his talent left, but no passion behind it. 

It had been a long time since he’d felt so very unglittery, and he wished he had enough energy left to hate it. 


	76. Precarious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I’m more than three quarters!

  * •^*^••



**76**

**Precarious**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64, 73 and 74)

(Tiny Tenants)

Roman was precariously perched on the rim of a cup, happily munching on his bit of cookie, and Logan was trying very hard to neither look at him for too long or reach out to hold a hand beneath him. Remus was probably in an even more dangerous position, but Logan thankfully hadn’t caught sight of him yet. 

At least Dee seemed to be keeping an eye on the both of them, also eating a piece of cookie. And he didn’t seem concerned, so perhaps they really were fine. 

A small scraping noise caught his attention, and Virgil stepped out onto the counter. 

“Virgil! Do you know if Patton will be joining us?”

Virgil’s face went from neutral to sour. “No, he… he won’t.”

Logan frowned just slightly. He could’ve sworn that cookies were the correct answer. Perhaps it had been something else? 

“Does he dislike cookies?”

Virgil shook his head, letting out a sigh. “He thinks they’re a trap.”

Every bit of his good mood drained from him. He’d done it twice. He’d made two truly awful miscommunications. It was enough. He couldn’t leave his intentions to be so misconstrued. 

Logan abruptly turned and walked into the living room and faced where he knew Patton’s home to be. 

“Wait, Logan!” Virgil’s voice called, but Logan ignored him for the moment. 

He raised his voice slightly, but was careful to be sure that his tone did not sound angry in any way. 

“Patton, I wish to apologize. I scared you earlier, and I had intended to apologize, and perhaps make it up to you, by making cookies, which is seemed you would enjoy. I did not make my intentions clear, and it seems I have only scared you further. I apologize.”

There wasn’t a single sound from Patton, but Logan was going to finish what he was saying, whether or not he got a response. 

“If there is any way I can possibly relieve your fears or make things smoother between us I would like to know. You do not have to tell me yourself, I’m sure Virgil would be willing to carry a message. I do not expect you to become friends with me, but my goal is to take our relationship to a place where there is no longer any fear. If this means that we are no longer in any contact whatsoever, then so be it. I leave that up to you.”

After waiting a moment, with no response, Logan walked into his bedroom. It may be cowardly, but he wasn’t entirely certain that he could face the other borrowers right away. 

  * •^*^••



“I just don’t know,” Patton said, his voice still trembly. 

“If you aren’t sure, tell him to leave you entirely alone,” Dee suggested. “You can always change your mind about it later.”

Patton nodded slightly. 

“I know you don’t really believe me, but I completely believe Logan.” Virgil said. “He just wants us all to be happy. And I don’t know why he cares, but he does, and he’s willing to let us stay here, and feed us, and he’s even letting us choose how we interact with him. He did with me for a long time before I trusted him.”

Patton bit into the cookie, his face showing his troubled thoughts. After a while, he gave a half-hearted chuckle. “He makes good cookies. Maybe I can say he has to make me cookies whenever I want.”

“You could,” Virgil said. 

Dee shrugged. “If I’m gonna get fat, these are a good way to go.”

Patton’s chuckle gained a bit more strength. “I was just joking.”

“Really, though,” Virgil said. “Come up with something ridiculous, something way too much, and I’m sure he’ll still do it.”

Patton nodded. “I wanna think about it more.”

Dee waved a hand at Virgil to hush whatever he might say. “And that’s fine.”


	77. Leap

  * •^*^••



**77**

**Leap**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 69)

Logan had gone and moved his  _ whole  _ tank into the living room. Rude. 

And so Remus was pouting about it. Because it was just not fair. Now he had to be bored  _ and  _ alone. It would only be for a bit longer, really, until he fell asleep, but it was still not fair. 

He couldn’t wait until he woke up again! Logan would be back to his truly fantastic self, and they’d do so many amazing things! But he couldn’t wake up until he slept, and he didn’t want to sleep cause he was grumpy. 

He started swimming up and down, but really, it wasn’t nearly as satisfying without the possibility of Logan waking up. And then he had an idea. 

Remus crouched low at the bottom of the tank, cooling all his muscles, and shot up, grabbing the edge of the tank and shoving himself up further, and then falling with a wet splat onto the table. 

He burst into giggles, and maybe a few groans, because that  _ hurt.  _ “I made it!” 

He propped himself up with his arms, since his tentacles weren’t really meant to bear up his weight. He crawled around the table, leaving a wet smear behind him. Now this was fun! Or at least new, and that was much the same thing. The only problem was that he was starting to feel rather dry and stiff. 

Eh, it wasn’t a problem. He’d once left his top half out of the water so long his eyes had stuck closed when he blinked. He’d be fine. 

But, well, it was just a table. There wasn’t actually anything to do out here. Remus let out a long whine, flopping onto his back. 

“Logan, you’re a terrible pet owner!” He yelled. 

Upon receiving no answer, he let out an even longer, grumblier whine. 

It was weird feeling himself stiffen up. If he closed his eyes he could feel it very clearly, the skin almost thickening and sticking in place. How long would it take him to dry out completely? 

He was suddenly startled awake by Logan yelling. “Remus!!”

Remus blinked, frowning, and even his face was all stiff now. “Wha’ you wan’?”

Logan scooped him up and plopped him into the water, and oh! Now that was truly an amazing feeling! He’d have to dry out more often if it felt like this to get in water again. Remus wriggled around, loosening up and starting to get more and more awake. 

“What happened?!” Logan demanded. “How long were you out of the water? That’s dangerous!”

Remus shrugged, twirling to get the last of the kinks out of his tentacles. 

“You can’t do that!” Logan yelled again. “You terrified me, and you could’ve hurt yourself!”

“But it was fun!” Remus protested. 

“Fun…?” Logan sighed, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m putting your lid on at night.”

Remus popped up at the top of the water. “Hey, no! That’s not fair!”

“It is too! I’m not going to let you kill yourself out of boredom.”

Remus pouted, letting himself drift back down. “Then I’ll die of boredom!”

“I will find you something to do, but you can’t get out of the tank when I’m not around.”

Remus’s eyes lit up. “Then I can get out when you are around!?!”


	78. Stash

  * •^*^••



**78**

**Stash**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 69 and 77)

Logan had a stash of canned tuna just for times like these. Remus was just bursting with energy, and Logan found himself rather lacking. 

He held the tiny piece high above the tank. “Settle down and I’ll give it to you.”

“I’m not dumb, Lo, just tiny,” Remus grumped, and then he sprang up higher out of the water than Logan had though he was capable of, snatching the bit of fish and shoving it into his mouth before he hit the water. 

He gave a happy spin, sending a shit eating grin to Logan. 

Logan couldn’t help the fond smile. He was too much sometimes, but that didn’t mean that Logan didn’t like him through it all. 

He turned back to his microscope, zooming in further.

Suddenly there was a wet splat, and something cold and slimy touching his hand. Logan recoiled with a loud cry, which just prompted Remus to burst into cackling laughter. 

“What are you doing?!”

“You said I could come out if you were around.”

“I did not!”

Remus pouted, which might have been more effective if he looked younger, crossing his arms across his chest. “Did too.”

Logan ran a hand over his face, realizing a second later that he was very glad to have used the dry hand, and sighed. He picked Remus up and set him back in the tank. 

Logan rummaged around on his desk, finally finding a spinner ring and giving it to Remus. “Entertain yourself with this until I finish the boring parts, ok?”

Remus nodded rather grumpily, and Logan got back to work. 

He was drawn away by the sound of almost-panicked laughter. “I cahan’t get it off!”

Remus had managed to get the ring around his  _ waist,  _ stuck so tightly it indented the skin. 

“How???”

Remus struggled, shoving down on the ring and shimmying back and forth. “It just got stuck.”

“But why would you try to get it  _ on  _ in the first place?!”

“You said to entertain myself! Help me!”

Logan tried, but when the only success was bruises along Remus’s torso he stopped. “I’m taking you to the vet.”

“No! It’s the middle of the night! They won’t be open!”

“Then I’ll take you in the morning.”

“What about tonight? This hurts, help me get it off before morning.”

“Remus, I’m truly sorry, but all my attempts have only hurt you further.”

“The  _ vet  _ will hurt me further!”

“They will not. If needs be I will insist on being nearby.”

Remus curled up around himself, grabbing onto his tentacles in a self-soothing gesture Logan had thought him grown out of. 

Logan scooped him up out of the water, cradling him between his hands. “I will try again. But I will get this off you, and if that means the vet, then I will take you to the vet. I will ensure your safety, the vet will not hurt you.”

Remus flopped across his palms, nodding despondently. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re getting ~kinda~ close to the end, so I’m gonna go ahead and open voting for which series should become their own stories. If they don’t have an ending by the end I will write one, so feel free to pick your favorite, even if it isn’t close to done. 
> 
> You don’t have to vote right away, there’s still 20+ chapters left.


	79. Trap

  * •^*^••



**79**

**Trap**

  * •^**••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64, 73, 74 and 76)

(Tiny Tenants)

  
  


Patton just couldn’t shake the feeling that this could still be a trap. But Virgil and Dee would be there, just out of sight, and they’d be watching. 

So Patton took yet another slow breath, hoping that eventually the tremor shaking his body would stop. 

Virgil had already explained to Logan that Patton was going to try baby steps. And between the baby steps to please leave him alone. Well, this was the first of those steps, and it seemed very much not like a baby at all. It seemed like a massive leap. 

Patton took another breath, trying to concentrate on the feeling it made coming in and going out, instead of the thoughts swirling in his brain. He pushed the door open and walked out onto the kitchen counter. 

Logan was waiting patiently, and Patton didn’t know if that made the whole thing easier or harder. 

“I-I want you t-to, to give me just— just one high five. A-and then leave.” Patton hated the stutter, but he was really surprised he’d managed to get the words out at all. 

He held a shaking hand up. 

Logan came closer, and Patton tried really hard not to cringe away. But he just ever so gently tapped his finger to Patton’s hand, and then left, not making any sound, and his face perfectly even and open. 

Patton collapsed to the counter in a wave of relief. He’d done it. He’d done it! And, and it wasn’t awful! Actually, that was pretty miserable, but nothing truly bad happened! 

Virgil and Dee came out and wrapped him in a hug, and he felt so good and warm sandwiched between them. 

“You did so well, Patton,” Dee said quietly. 

Virgil hummed in affirmation, squeezing just a bit tighter. 

Patton let out a laugh that still sounded a bit panicky, but was mostly happy, because he’d done it! 


	80. Flash

  * •^*^••



**80**

**Flash**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64, 73, 74, 76 and 79)

(Tiny Tenants)

(A few weeks later)

It was difficult to override his own instincts to look at the flashes of movement in the very corners of his vision. But still, Logan wasn’t supposed to interact with the twins or Patton, and if Virgil or Dee wanted his attention, they would always come closer or announce themselves. So he was trying to keep his eyes forward as much as possible. 

But there was progress, and Logan still held out hope that someday he’d get back to feeling comfortable and free, if still careful and gentle. Patton, in particular, was trying very hard to get along with him. Even though his poor body shook when Logan got close enough to touch him, and he clearly wasn’t comfortable when they tried to watch a movie together, he was still trying. Every few days at least there would be some form of contact, slowly graduating up to more and longer periods of time. 

The little door on the kitchen counter opened, and Logan very carefully did not look to see who it was. 

“Logan?” Came Patton’s rather faint voice. 

Logan turned to look at him, pretending he didn’t see the slight cringe, and giving a slight smile. “Yes?”

“I would like…” Patton bit his lip and took a deep breath, standing straighter. “I would like to make cookies with you.”

Logan couldn’t hide the surprise, with how quickly it came. This was a huge step for Patton. “Of course, I’d love to make cookies with you.”

Patton gave him a shaky smile. 

Logan started getting out bowls and measuring spoons, careful to set them down quietly. “What kind would you like to make?”

Patton froze up a bit. “What about thumbprint cookies?”

“That sounds delicious,” Logan said, trying to be encouraging. 

There came that shaky smile again, and Logan discovered that he loved it. 

He pulled out the ingredients, and while he couldn’t do anything that was heavy, Patton was surprisingly good at handling the measuring spoons, and with just a little help, he had several things to climb up on to reach everything he needed. 

But what really surprised Logan was how well and quickly Patton formed the little balls, and patted the indentation into them. 

“Have you made cookies before?”

Patton got a sad, almost nostalgic look on his face. “Yeah… a long time ago.”

Logan just nodded, not wanting to press. 

But Patton kept talking. “It was just a bit after borrowers were ‘discovered’, and I was living in this house where there was a little girl. She loved cookies so much! And I thought, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. It was fine until her parents saw me, and then it quickly became not fine.”

“I’m sorry.”

Patton shrugged, setting another ball of dough onto the pan. “At least you don’t have any more humans here, huh?”

Logan nodded, not quite sure if it was meant to be a joke. He had that slight lilt to his voice, as if it might be, but Logan didn’t want to laugh at something that might not be a joke. 

They’d only made a small batch, since it was just Logan and the borrowers, and it all fit on one pan, which Logan put into the oven. 

“This was… kind of fun,” Patton said, giving Logan another shaky smile. 

Logan smiled back. “It was. I’m glad you suggested it.”

Patton’s smile grew, and he looked away. He picked the measuring spoon up again, hefting it into the empty bowl. 

“We could clean up now, while they’re baking.”

Cleaning up didn’t take long, but neither did baking, and soon there were twins sneaking out onto the counter hoping to get a first taste. 

Logan pulled the cookies out and put several on a plate to cool, not that that stopped the borrowers. 

Logan was trying to follow the ‘do not interact’ rules, but a chance glance in their direction, and he saw Patton, both hands full of cookie, with jelly on his face, and smiling, really truly smiling at him. Logan’s heart was instantly full, and his mind saved that image away carefully, where he could come back to it as frequently as he wanted. 


	81. Miscommunication

  * •^*^••



**81**

**Miscommunication**

  * •^*^••



(“Stolen” from a prompt I did for something else. I just really liked it and wanted to have the chance to continue it.)

Janus had found paradise, or at least the closest thing to it. It was an abandoned garden, absolutely gorgeous and overgrown, with a large rock just perfect for sunning in the corner. With all the large rose bushes, grown wild over the paths, there were plenty of hiding places, and he’d had the sweetest smelling home of any he’d ever tried to stay in. He moved in immediately after making sure that it truly was abandoned. 

He cleaned up the garden just a bit. Not enough that any humans would notice, but beneath the cover of the leaves were now neat little paths and nests just his size. He hunted the mice and birds that came to eat the insects and plants, and tended the plants as best as he knew how. 

And the sunning rock was just perfect. It couldn’t be seen from the road, and with the house adjoining the garden empty, he barely had to worry at all about being seen, and could fully enjoy the warmth of the sun, with the soft breeze, and the delightful smell, and quiet hum of insects. It truly was paradise.

  * •^*^••



Roman had just bought his first house, and was extremely pleased with it. He hadn’t  _ seen  _ it yet, but he’d been told about the quaint little cottage with a fairly large garden, just a touch too close to the wilds for most people’s taste. But not his! He was an adventurer, and a cozy place to call home at the end of his adventure, still close enough to go right off on another was exactly what he wanted.

He went in the back door, as the front was rather grown over with the garden. The first order of business seemed to be cleaning up a bit, and unpacking, and then he’d explore just a bit of the land around before bed. 

He hummed a quiet tune as he worked, clearing away the thick dust and spiderwebs covering most of the surfaces. He’d only just started on windowsills when he happened to look through the window just in time to see, in the far end of the garden, laying on a rock, a small Naga. 

Roman’s sudden exuberance could not be contained, and he rushed out the door, clambering over the bramble of roses, and stopping just before the rock. “You’re so adorable!”

The Naga backed up into the corner made by the wall just behind the rock, hissing threateningly. 

“Oh, sorry, I should say handsome, nay, gorgeous! The gold of your tail is absolutely brilliant!”

“And who are you?” The Naga asked, his tone cold and angry.

“Rude. I own this house. You know, usually, such extraordinary beauty comes with at least some good manners.”

“Oh, pardon me,” the Naga said, his tone much more pleasant now, as he uncoiled and started moving smoothly along the wall. “I was unaware that I should be on my best behavior after being so rudely startled awake.”

Oh. Now that did put a different spin on things. Roman’s head drooped a bit. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to startle you--” his words cut off as the Naga suddenly darted into the bushes, far too quick for Roman to stop, and then he was just gone.

Roman could hear the rustling of his movement, but he couldn’t tell where he was in the garden. “Hey, wait! We were talking.”

But there was no answer.

  * •^*^••



There must have been some kind of miscommunication somewhere, Janus thought, desperately racing to get as far away as quickly as possible. He’d thought the garden was abandoned, but this human owned it?? He paused at the far wall, where there was a gap he could squirm underneath. He hated the thought of leaving paradise. 

Well… the human was still looking around aimlessly and dejectedly. Perhaps, just a bit longer, while the garden was still overgrown. He could certainly keep hidden, and he would only have to give up the rock, instead of the whole garden. 

He slipped back to his nest, hunkering down in the dimmest, safest part of it. 

The human was stupid anyway. He wouldn’t be found. 


	82. Lantern

  * •^*^••



**82**

**Lantern**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 7. I know probably most of you guys won’t remember Tinker, but I do!)

Patton lifted the lantern from its hook, lifting it and hoping to get a little more of a view of the giant. He’d hoped, he’d hoped so badly that by going at night they wouldn’t run into him, but they couldn’t make it all the way through in one night, so he’d started a bit early. Clearly too early. 

“Get inside your cart, it will be easier to lift you all together,” the giant commanded. 

Patton was strongly inclined to do as he said, if only because then he might be nicer if they did. But he knew Virgil probably wouldn’t feel that way. 

Virgil was swaying, even with his grip on the side of the little covered cart, and really shouldn’t be standing at all. 

Patton held Virgil’s other arm, providing support. “I’ll help you get back in.”

“You want us to just go along with it into a giant’s den?!” Virgil hissed. 

Patton frowned. “He can do whatever he wants anyway. I just want to get you safely to Arthia, and maybe if we do what he says he’ll keep his word.”

Virgil sighed, and started to get back in the cart, but Patton suspected that his compliance was more from his injuries than because he believed that the giant might be telling the truth. 

Patton helped him in, and climbed in after him, carefully not squishing him in the tiny space. It wasn’t meant for one, much less two, and when the whole thing tipped as it was lifted, Patton fell into Virgil. Virgil bit out a curse, and a long, pained hiss. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry.”

“You didn’t mean to,” Virgil gritted out. 

Patton hoped the giant would hold the cart level, and put them down soon. 

Finally there was a loud sound like a door opening, and they were carried inside somewhere and set down. 

“Are you ok?”

Virgil was paler again, and his eyes were screwed shut, but he nodded. Patton climbed out of the cart and looked up at the giant, fear welling in his belly. 

“Um.. please don’t ask him to do anything. He’s very hurt, and he needs to rest.”

Virgil hissed out a warning, but Patton ignored him, maintaining eye contact with the giant. 

“Very well. I am going to make dinner, feel free to entertain yourself, but please do not disturb my belongings.”

Patton nodded, and the giant left the room. Patton took in a long, shaky breath. It was going to be a long night. 


	83. Tiptoe

  * •^*^••



**83**

**Tiptoe**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 25, 43, and 59)

(Green Thumb)

Virgil was asleep. He had a little pot next to Patton’s bed, filled with thick, soft moss, and several old, dried flower petals that were somehow still soft enough to be blankets. Patton resisted the urge to coo over how cute he was, and tiptoed carefully around, trying not to wake him up. 

Patton ended up in the kitchen, thinking hard. Virgil did so many sweet things to make him happy, and he wanted to do something back. But what?

He was really good at baking, but he already baked all the time, so it just wouldn’t be special enough. Virgil already used his plants to make almost everything he needed, so it wasn’t like Patton could give him something like that. 

Patton kept thinking, frowning over the table as if the grain of the wood held the secret to the mysteries of life. And then he had an idea. It wasn’t the best idea, or even one he was very confident about, but it was an idea. 

He went and searched through the back closet, pulling out his old box of crafting supplies, and carefully and quietly laying them out on the table. Colored pencils, and construction paper, and markers, and stickers, and an old half-empty thing of glitter, and scissors and glue, and even some paint! Well, the paint turned out to be dried out, but the rest of it was all still good! He hadn’t used it in quite a while, but he was pretty certain he could still make something good.

Patton labored over that card for almost a whole hour, before he heard tiny noises signalling that Virgil had woken up. There wasn’t enough time to clean up, so he just put a few finishing touches to the card and left the mess on the table as he went back to his bedroom. 

Virgil was sitting up, stretching and yawning. It. Was. Adorable! Patton knew Virgil didn’t like him saying so if he did it too frequently, so he didn’t say anything, but that didn’t make the surge of fondness any less. 

“Morning,” Patton said softly, though it was really late afternoon. 

Virgil gave him a still-sleepy smile. “Mornin’.”

Patton bounced up on his toes just a little bit. “I made you a present.”

Virgil woke up a good bit more. “A present?”

Patton nodded excitedly, pulling the card out from behind his back and setting it on the side table next to Virgil, standing up and open so he could see it all. 

Virgil climbed down from his pot, and silently examined every inch of the card. Then he turned back to Patton. 

“I love it.”

Patton swelled up with happiness and scooped him up, holding him close to his face, and Virgil hugged his cheek. 

That evening, ~completely by accident~ Virgil ended up covered in glitter while they were having fun with the craft supplies


	84. Rumble

  * •^*^••



**84**

**Rumble**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 69, 77, and 78) 

(Now called Aquarius)

  
  


Remus’s stomach rumbled. He looked up at Logan, who was looking down at him both fondly and sternly. 

“If I feed you, we’ll never get it off. It’ll have to wait until we get back from the vet.”

“I don’t  _ want  _ to go to the vet!” Remus exploded. 

“Remus, we’ve discussed this, it will be harmful to you if you do not go.”

“I don’t want to!” Remus shoved down on the ring, ignoring the pain, and trying to get it to slide down. 

Logan scooped him up out of the water again. Normally, Remus would be having fun, but not he just scowled at Logan. 

“Remus, I swear to you, if I take you to the vet it is for your good. I will not allow them to harm you.”

Remus crossed his arms. “It’s not like they let you in the back, though.”

“Neither of us will know for sure until we get there, but no matter what, I will keep you safe.”

Remus trusted Logan, but he didn’t trust that he really had that much power once he’d handed him over to strangers. 

Logan suddenly turned his head. “Ah, it’s time. If we leave now we can get there by the time they open. Hopefully, being the first, we will be seen quickly, and it will all be over in a short time.”

Remus frowned, and gripped onto Logan’s hand. He would  _ not  _ be putting him down. Logan one-handedly collected keys and wallet, and filled a container with water. He held Remus overtop. 

“If you get in now, you can ride here, but if you stay stuck to my hand I will not have another chance to put you inside until we arrive.”

Remus shook his head stubbornly. 

“Very well.”

It was all too short a drive until Logan was taking him inside a strange building. 


	85. Conspiracy

  * •^*^••



**85**

**Conspiracy**

  * •^*^••



(Virgil is human, Patton and Janus are little nagas that are more like stray cats than pets, as in Virgil doesn’t  _ keep  _ them, but he certainly cares for them)

Janus was still a little nervous around Virgil, probably because he’d only been coming around for a week or so, and Patton guessed he’d had bad experiences with humans before. But that didn’t change the fact that Virgil was the sweetest puffball of a human Patton had ever met!

“I’ve got him wrapped around my finger, Jan, just watch.”

Virgil was watching conspiracy theories on his phone, which was one of his favorite things to do, and made him nearly oblivious to the outside world. 

Janus didn’t look very sure, but he coiled up nearby to watch. Patton went straight to where Virgil was slouched in the chair and climbed his leg. Usually that was enough to get his attention, but apparently not today. 

Patton swayed back and forth in his lap. “Viiiirgiiiil…”

“Hmm?” Virgil said, not even really looking away from his phone. 

Patton draped himself over Virgil’s arm, tugging at his wrist with his tail. “Pay me attention.”

Virgil absently stroked a hand down Patton’s scales, and scratched lightly at his belly. Patton giggled, squirming around happily. And usually that would be plenty, as it was very pleasant and just a little bit tickly, and usually it led to full cuddles after a few minutes. But not now. Now he was making a point. 

“Virgil, no, real attention!” He said plaintively, patting Virgil’s hand. 

Virgil’s eyes went from his phone to Patton, and back again, and then he sighed, and clicked it off. “Alright, greedy, I’ll give you attention. What do you want?” He lifted Patton up to his face level, and Patton beamed at him. 

“I want a snack, and then to play a game with you! And Janus too! Give Janus attention too!”

Virgil smiled fondly. “Does Janus want attention?” He asked, just a touch of admonition in his voice. 

Patton wilted just slightly. “Oh. Janus! Come have fun with me and Virgil!”

Virgil chuckled and stood up. “Patton, you dork.”

He extended his other hand down to Janus. “You don’t have to, but you can come with us if you want.”

Janus shook his head. 

Virgil nodded. “And that’s fine. If you change your mind, just follow the sound of laughter, cause this little guy never, stops, laughing!” He punctuated the last words with little pokes to Patton’s belly, which really did make him laugh. 

Patton was carried into the kitchen, and Virgil made a sandwich, cutting it in half and then cutting two little squares out of the middle. One he handed to Patton, and the other he put on a paper towel, scribbling  _ for Janus  _ on it. 

“So what did you want to play?” Virgil asked, his mouth rather full of sandwich. 

Patton shrugged. “Something fun.”

Virgil hmmmd for a while. “You know what’s fun? The chase Patton game.”

Patton shoved the last bite of sandwich into his mouth and took off. 

“Five... four… three… two… one!”

Patton let out a squeak that definitely gave away his location, and slithered as fast as he could, ducking behind furniture and in places Virgil couldn’t reach, as Virgil stomped around trying to catch him. 

He caught a quick glimpse of Janus, getting up into the leave-me-alone basket, since Janus really didn’t like this game. But Patton did! He kept moving, dodging and avoiding Virgil very well until he tried to get across an open space that was just too large, and Virgil caught up, grabbing him up by the tail. 

Patton let out a shriek, and Virgil sat down, holding Patton around the waist where he couldn’t get free. 

“I’ve got you now! You’re all mine!” Virgil wiggled his fingers around Patton’s belly and sides and Patton burst into laughter. 

“Virgil!” Patton protested, giggling uncontrollably. 

“Mine! My little tiny giggly snake.” Virgil said, switching to a gentler stroking all the way down Patton’s tail. 

And that really did feel nice. Patton shifted around a bit, and Virgil loosened his grip so he was just holding Patton up. Patton flopped into a comfy position, and melted into the pleasant feeling. 

“Don’t stop. You can’t stop now until I fall asleep.”

Virgil stroked just one finger over his back, and then down his tail, and Patton melted even more. Virgil always knew exactly how it felt the nicest. 

Janus peeped his head up out of the basket, and Patton gave him a sleepy wave. He was going to go to sleep now, with Virgil being all sweet to him. 

“You’re the very best human,” Patton mumbled, hugging Virgil’s hand. 


	86. Cat

  * •^*^••



**86**

**Cat**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 38, 39, 42, 44, 56, and 70)

(Tiny Artists)

This was Logan’s next idea. A cat. Not just any cat, but a cat that had been trained to catch and bring ‘presents’ to its owner without harming them. Or at least without killing them, the owner had said. 

Logan released the cat near the apartment complex, and waited. 

The cat was an idiot. He didn’t know what he’d expected, as it was still a cat, but he’d hoped it would go straight for the tiny people that he was sure lived in there somewhere! But instead it kept going to the humans, begging for treats, and bringing him only mice, small lizards, and once a bird. 

It certainly wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated. 

  * •^*^••



Patton stared up in awe, and to be honest, just a little fear. 

_ Mew _

“You’re so precious!” He said very quietly, before nearly getting tackled by Roman who was trying to drag him away as fast as possible. 

“Why’s there a cat?! Why were you just sitting there?! How did a  **_cat_ ** get in here?!?”

The cat meowed again, batting at Roman. 

“No! No, kitty, leave Roman alone.” Patton tried, but she seemed too interested, and Roman wasn’t helping things by trying to fight back. The cat was curiously batting him over every time he stood back up, and had nearly nipped him more than once. 

Patton couldn’t let that happen, and he couldn’t stop it. Not by himself. He turned in the direction of the other room, cupping his hands around his mouth and screaming as loud as he could. It was meant to be “Virgil!” But it quickly devolved into just a scream. 

Suddenly he was shoved to the ground, two heavy paws pressing down on his back, and the cat’s nose pushed against him. The cat licked him, and then let him go, nudging him and patting. 

“No, kitty, that hurt!” Patton said, not terribly upset, but hoping that Virgil had heard him and was coming to help with the cat. 

Virgil appeared in the doorway. “Pat?! Are you ok, what happened?!”

The cat picked Patton up in her mouth, and raced off. Patton squirmed and hit against the side of her jaw, but she wouldn’t let him go. There was a very loud chase, with Virgil trying to catch her, and Roman trying to catch up, but she slipped out through the window that Virgil had left open earlier. 

Patton screamed when she jumped to the ground, but she knew what she was doing and he wasn’t hurt, just scared, and ready to go home and leave cats alone for the rest of his life. Or at least for a very long time. 


	87. Attention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured out how to make Logan not unsympathetic! Thanks to rocrolwriter for part of the idea!

  * •^*^••



**87**

**Attention**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 38, 39, 42, 44, 56, 70 and 86)

(Tiny Artists)

Roman stared horrified out the window. Virgil had run down there immediately to try to catch the cat, but somehow the cat had slipped away entirely,  _ taking his brother with it.  _ Roman felt a strange detachment from his body, even as his knees gave out and he slumped on the windowsill, futilely looking out as if Patton would reappear. 

  * •^*^••



There was a little meow, and a few other strange sounds. Logan sighed and looked down at the cat, hoping that it hadn’t brought back a live mouse again. 

“You want more…. attention…..” Logan trailed off. There was a tiny person in the cat’s mouth. There was a TINY PERSON!

He reached down very carefully. “Here, give it to me, kitty,” he said quietly, even as the tiny person started squirming and thrashing. 

It was dropped into his cupped hands, and Logan just stared in awe. He’d never truly believed it could be possible, much less that he would ever see one,  _ much  _ less hold one in his hand! And then it turned over to look up at him, miniature limbs moving perfectly and smoothly, and burst into tears, curling in on itself and sobbing. 

Logan was snapped out of his awed daze. “What… what is it? Did she hurt you?” He was as gentle as he knew how to be, carefully uncurling the tiny body and scanning for injuries.

But the tiny person, who he could now see was only adolescent, if that, just cried harder, pushing back against his probing fingers. 

“What’s wrong?” Logan asked. 

“Y-you kid-kidnapped me!” the tiny person wailed. “A-and you’re be-ing  _ mean! _ ”

It took Logan a few moments to process that the tiny person could  _ speak  _ before his brain caught up with what had been said. “I am not. I’ve tried to be very gentle.”

The tiny person glared up at him through tears, hitting his fingers. “You wo-won’t even let me  _ move. _ ”

Logan took a moment, and the reality of the situation from the other perspective pounded into him with the weight of a punch to his gut. He very nearly dropped the tiny person, and only barely managed to carefully get back in his chair and slowly open his hands on his desk, letting the tiny person stand on his own. 

He did not, it appeared, want to stand, as he sat down as soon as Logan removed his hands, still crying.

Logan was quickly being overwhelmed with the conflicting need to do something to help, and the utter lack of knowledge on how to help.


	88. Ceiling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for forced sedation

  * •^*^••



**88**

**Ceiling**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 69, 77, 78, and 84) 

(Now called Aquarius)

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Remus stared sullenly at the ceiling in the far corner, which was as far away from Logan as he could look. He was sulking, down in the very bottom of the container of water Logan had brought, which turned out to be a gallon pitcher. Occasionally he got mad enough to squirm furiously and try to get the dumb ring  _ off!  _ But it never worked. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

The time they spent waiting wasn’t nearly long enough before Logan’s name was called. Remus swam quickly to the top, trying one last-ditch effort at puppy eyes, but of course Logan didn’t stop. Remus grabbed the ends of his tentacles in his hands, squeezing hard enough to almost hurt. It helped him feel the teeniest bit better, but then again, every step Logan was taking towards that desk made him feel infinitely worse. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Remus didn’t pay attention at all as Logan explained the problem, but he did catch on immediately when the lady said, “He doesn’t look so good, you really should’ve put him into a proper container.”

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Logan’s explanation of trying to be fast and not having another container clean was quickly drowned out as Remus tried to splash the lady. “I am perfectly fine in here! Logan is a  _ great  _ pet owner!”

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Logan stopped him from spraying the water, but only by catching it with his hand, and Remus was glad to see that he had at least managed to get the paperwork wet. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

“I’m sorry, he’s quite upset that I brought him here,” Logan said apologetically. “The sooner we can get this off the less he’ll be able to damage.”

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Remus crossed his arms, frowning up at Logan. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

The lady was saying something, but Remus was ignoring her in favor of trying to activate his latent siren powers that would enable him to sway Logan by glaring at him. Unfortunately, that meant he was entirely unprepared for Logan to suddenly hand the pitcher over to a complete stranger. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

“Logan!” Remus screeched. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

“You’ll be alright, Remus.” Logan promised, even though he had no way of knowing that. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Remus was  _ not  _ having it. They were  _ not  _ taking him into some back room, all alone with a stranger, who could do  _ anything.  _ He screamed, and fought, and splashed as much water as he could. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

The vet person set the container down, and then poured a different container full of something that wasn’t just water. It was subtly greenish, and Remus did everything he could to fight being put into that container, utterly ignoring everything the vet said that was supposed to lull him into complacency. But the vet was bigger, and while he could slip out of a hand, nets were unforgiving, and he was scooped into the new container, which had a lid put on so tight he had no space to breathe any air, and was forced to breathe the contaminated water. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

Remus let out the loudest screech he could manage, screaming for Logan. But taking in that much water at once made him dizzy, and his vision blurred. Remus panicked, slamming against the walls and screaming as his strength was sapped, and he slowly fell unconscious. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

  * •^*^••



[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

When Remus woke, he was being held gently in Logan’s hands, underwater in what looked like his own tank. The ring was gone, and all his bruises tingled slightly warm, wrapped up in gauze that let him move freely but held on whatever medicine had been put there. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

“Hey, there,” Logan said softly. “They told me they had to put you under. Did you really cause that much trouble?”

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

And that wasn’t at  _ all _ fair. Remus rolled over, grabbing Logan’s finger tightly but not looking at him. His eyes felt all warm, so he was probably crying, tears just blending in with the water, but he didn’t care. 

[ ](https://kieraswriting.tumblr.com/post/616124514696298496/100-gt-prompts-masterpost)

“I hate you.”


	89. Experiment

  * •^*^••



**89**

**Experiment**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 69, 77, 78, 84, and 88) 

(Now called Aquarius)

Remus had been extremely clingy ever since the vet, but stubbornly silent. He hardly said a word no matter what coaxing Logan tried. He was clearly very upset, but Logan didn’t know quite why. He hadn’t been hurt, that much was clear. The ring had been removed rather quickly, and all his bruises carefully medicated and wrapped. 

“Would you want to try an experiment with me?” Logan asked. 

Remus shook his head. 

Logan sighed heavily. “Remus, please, I don’t know what you’re so upset about.”

“You don’t?” Remus said, more an accusation than a question. 

“They didn’t hurt you, Remus.”

Remus’s face screwed up, angry, and… and hurt. “I told you, Logan! I told you no! I told you I didn’t want to! Cause humans never think it hurts! And I— I thought—“

Remus turned away, but the weight of his words sank into Logan’s mind. “You thought?” He asked quietly. 

Remus stiffened, and his words rang with a kind of finality. “I thought you were different.”

Logan didn’t move. Couldn’t. It hurt. Remus’s words hurt, of course, but what hurt more was the realization that he really had treated Remus just like a pet. He’d taken him to the vet against his will, ignored both his anger and his pleading, and offered mere platitudes as Remus had literally screamed for him. He’d taken the role of ultimate authority over another sentient being, and hadn’t had a bit of remorse over doing it. 

His chest hurt, and he felt his stomach churn. “I’m… sorry.”

Remus turned back around, but Logan only dimly registered it, his eyes fixed on an imperfection in the wood of his desk. “I completely ignored your wishes, and forced you into something that hurt you. Remus, I’m sorry.”

There was a small gap of silence, but it seemed to last for ages. 

“I’m still mad at you.”

“You have every right to be,” Logan said. 

Remus’s face screwed up again, but in a different way, one harder to interpret. 

“Can I hold you?” Logan asked, not wanting to overstep yet again by just reaching in, but wanting very much to comfort Remus and do something to start repairing the rift he’d made between them. 

Even before the words were entirely out of his mouth Remus was nodding, and Logan scooped him carefully out of the water. Remus clung tightly to his fingers for a while, and when he finally turned back to Logan, his grin was only half joking. 

“I’m gonna make you spoil me completely.”

Logan chuckled, feeling a lump come up in his throat. “Well maybe you deserve to get spoiled for a while.”

Remus smiled cheekily, but something about it wasn’t quite like it had been. “What would you think about getting another mer?”

Logan’s smile faltered. “Uh, well, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I wouldn’t mind, if it made you happy.”

Remus nodded. “It’s just an idea.”

But Logan knew it was more than just an idea. He wasn’t Remus’s best friend anymore, he’d been moved out of that place. He was an owner now. Maybe a really good one, maybe one that was kind of like a friend, but an owner. And it was his own fault, but it  _ hurt.  _ And the knowledge that it really was all his own fault hurt. Logan felt a tear slip down his face. 

He didn’t  _ want this!  _ And even that wasn’t fair, because Remus should be his focus, Remus was the one who’d been hurt by this. He felt a sudden urge to beg for forgiveness, for his place back, because he’d never realized how much he’d valued it until it was gone, but he knew that wasn’t fair to Remus either. 

So he just sat there, silently, and tears slipped down his face. Remus was just as silent in his hand, and Logan knew that things wouldn’t ever be quite the same again. 


	90. Touch

  * •^*^••



**90**

**Touch**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 38, 39, 42, 44, 56, 70, 86 and 87)

(Tiny Artists)

“Are you ok?” Logan asked, hardly daring to touch the tiny person. 

He gave Logan a reproachful look. “No.”

“Are you hurt?”

“You kidnapped me!” The tiny person yelled. “You-you sent your cat to catch people like me.”

“There’s more of you?” Logan asked, awestruck. 

The tiny person just burst into tears again. “I’m not telling you anything until you take me back to Virgil!”

Logan frowned. “So he really did have you. Well, I can assure you, I’ll be able to provide—“

“NO!” The little person all but screamed. “I don’t want to go with you! I want Virgil!”

Logan was at a loss. What could Virgil provide that he couldn’t? Was it merely an emotional attachment? Or perhaps, since he’d already let slip that there were others, it was merely proximity to his own kind. 

“What if I got more of your kind?” He couldn’t continue, as the little person started wailing loudly. 

  * •^*^••



Virgil was still searching, but getting more and more hopeless. Where could the cat have gone? Until he came to a sort of camper, parked near his apartment. There was a cat door. Perhaps… he didn’t want to trespass, but maybe it was unoccupied, and the car was inside. 

But as he got closer, he heard a voice, and then crying. And barely a second later he realized it was Patton. Trespassing or not, he grabbed the door handle and pulled it open. “Patton!”

“Virgil!” Patton wailed, and Virgil grabbed him up, ignoring the other man. 

“Wha—you can’t do that!” The man said. 

Virgil turned and fixed him with a glare, holding Patton close to his chest. “How dare you?!”

The man wilted. “W— You’re treating this like he’s a human!”

Virgil just turned away. This person wasn’t worth his time. He recognized him as the man who had bought the dollhouse, but he didn’t care. It didn’t matter. 

“I don’t understand!” The man said. 

“And until you do, I hope I never have to see you again.”

Virgil walked out and back up to his apartment. 

Roman was staring out the window as if he were contemplating jumping. 

“Roman!” Patton yelled, and Roman turned, tears streaked down his face. 

There were many, many hugs that night. Vague worries about what someone with a lot of money could do now that he knew borrowers existed crossed Virgil’s mind, but aside from locking all his windows and his door he just shoved them aside, concentrating on having Patton back. 


	91. Bookshelf

  * •^*^••



**91**

**Bookshelf**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64, 73, 74, 76, 79 and 80)

(Tiny Tenants)

Patton had been steadily practicing getting nearer and staying nearer to Logan, and his fear gradually faded. 

Logan had even cleared a shelf on his bookshelf for Patton! He put one book open on the shelf, and Patton could handle turning pages by himself and read it that way. 

But… Patton was noticing other things too. Logan, who had been so calm and steady when he first had met him, was starting to get almost flighty. His eyes darted around always, and he would sometimes jump at small noises. And, perhaps the worst of all, he was frowning more and more often. 

Or maybe that wasn’t the worst. Maybe the worst was that Patton was pretty sure he knew why. 

“Hey, Dee? Can we talk?”

“Hmm?” Dee looked up from where he was coloring with the twins. “Yeah, what is it?”

“Can we talk alone?”

Dee frowned slightly, but got up and went with Patton. 

“What is it?”

“It’s Logan…”

Dee blinked. “What— did he do something?”

“No, it’s… it’s what we’ve been doing. It’s not good for Logan.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean with all the rules. They were good to start with, and I’m really glad he let us make them, but I think we should need to let them go.”

Dee nodded slowly, but he was still frowning. “What do you mean it’s not good for Logan though?”

Patton started naming examples, and Dee’s eyes kept getting wider, his frown fading away. 

“I missed it. I missed all of that, but I see it now that you’re saying it. Yeah, let’s go talk to Logan.”

  * •^*^••



Both Dee and Patton stepped out onto his desk, and Logan froze, not sure if he was ‘supposed’ to see them or not. He settled for rubbing his eyes with both palms, hoping they’d leave if they didn’t want him seeing. 

“Logan?” Patton asked, his voice now entirely devoid of the quiver it had had for so long. 

Logan pulled his hands away, giving Patton a tired smile. It’d been a long day. “Did you need something?”

Patton shook his head. “Only kind of. We wanted to talk with you.”

Logan nodded seriously. 

“The way things are going just isn’t sustainable,” Dee said. 

Logan shook his head. “You’re right. I’ve been meaning to talk with you, or at least Virgil, about this for a while now. Perhaps it might be better if you stayed in the walls.”

Dee’s facial expression entirely changed, but Patton put a hand on his shoulder. “We can stay in the walls if that’s what you want, but what we were going to say is that… well, we really trust you, and we don’t think you’d ever do anything to hurt us. So, no more rules?” Patton immediately waved his hands. “I mean! It’s your house, so if you have rules! But no more from us I mean.”

Logan felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “That- thank you. It’s very flattering to have you put your trust in me. And I didn’t mean to imply that I wouldn’t want you around.”

Patton bit his lip, and rocked forward a bit on his feet, but then he suddenly ran forward and put his hands on Logan’s, squeezing slightly in a kind of hug before taking a step back and offering a smile. 

Logan smiled back. Suddenly, from his chest pocket, where he’d entirely forgotten that Virgil was napping, was a tiny ‘yes!’.


	92. Search

  * •^*^••



**92**

**Search**

  * •^*^••



(New arc! Fairies are very much captive, especially by the wealthy. Virgil is a type of assassin.)

Virgil bowed slightly to the host and hostess of the party. 

“Yes, we’ve heard of you!” The hostess gushed. “We’re so pleased that you’re here.”

“And we’ve heard you aren’t exactly a fan of crowds,” the host said with a knowing wink. “So there’s a little room off to the side where you can enjoy the party from a distance.”

Virgil nodded politely. He hadn’t expected such preferential treatment, but he would accept it, for the moment. 

The hostess pointed out the little room and then glided towards the next guest, all smiles and glitter.

Virgil was very glad to close the door behind him and shut out the clamor of the party. 

“Hello!” A cheerful, tinkling voice said. 

Virgil spun around, completely caught off guard. 

“Oh, I’m sorry!” The fairy standing on the table said quickly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I hadn’t expected a fairy,” Virgil said musingly. 

The fairy’s smile got the slightest bit brittle, before he hopped up into the air. “I’m Patton! I was told to make sure you felt comfortable here!”

Virgil sat down in the chair. “And what else?”

The fairy wisely flitted just a bit out of his reach. “I-I don’t know—“

“What else were you told to do?” Virgil asked, letting the slightest bit of a growl come into his voice. 

The fairy searched his eyes, smile finally dropping. And then he smiled again. “If I tell you, you might be uncomfortable, so I can’t do that!”

Virgil reached out, and as he expected there was an invisible barrier the fairy couldn’t cross. Even as he grabbed the fairy by the leg and pulled him closer the smile stayed, though he could see the fear in his eyes now. 

“I’ll be even more uncomfortable if you don’t tell me.”

The fairy nodded, his smile still staying, though brittle and cracked, and he subtly tried to free himself. “I’m also supposed to watch what you do and tell them.”

Virgil sighed heavily and nodded, lifting a hand to run through his hair. The fairy flinched back hard, and instead of a smile there were now tears in his eyes. 

Virgil let him go immediately. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, that whole thing was cruel of me. You can’t help it, you’re just trapped here.”

The fairy landed on the table, the tremor in his wings apparent once he stopped flying. “You’re not mad?”

“Not at you, no.”

The fairy nodded, and tried to pull out another smile, casting about for something to do. “Do you want me to do something? I can dance. Or I have a little bit of magic.”

Virgil tried a smile of his own, a very small one. “You really don’t have to do that, you know. I don’t need to be entertained.”

The poor fairy was still trembling though. “But— if you get bored, and then you get uncomfortable—“

Virgil held up a finger and the fairy quieted. “When’s the last time you ate?”

The fairy suddenly turned very shy indeed. “Yesterday.”

“Alright, I’ll brave the party long enough to get us a dessert, and you can eat it with me. That’ll make me more than comfortable. Sound good?”

The little fairy nodded. Poor thing. Virgil pitied anyone a servant in this house, but a fairy? Once the master and mistress were out of the way maybe he could snatch the fairy on his way out. 


	93. Please

  * •^*^••



**93**

**Please**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 14,16,24,28, 45,47,48, 52, 58, 61, 63, 64, 73, 74, 76, 79, 80 and 91)

(Tiny Tenants)

It had been a few weeks since they’d rediscussed rules. There was now a sign at both the big and little doors of Logan’s bedroom and office, and he could change the sign to ‘open’, ‘quiet’, or ‘closed’. The rest of the house was free game, and the twins in particular made sure it was never quiet. 

Many of the foods in the kitchen were borrower-accessible, and Logan was willing to open the others for them if it was a mealtime. 

They’d even had another borrower guest, though she moved on after only a day, saying that it wasn’t Logan, just she didn’t want to be the only girl. Patton wondered if she’d come back with friends someday. 

And, Patton’s favorite part! There was mandatory family movie nights twice a week. Since Logan was the human he got to pick half of them, and the borrowers either compromised or took turns picking. 

And that was tonight. Logan had a bowl of popcorn in his lap, with Roman and Remus sitting close by so they could keep getting pieces. Virgil was perched on his shoulder, and Logan offered him a piece every once in a while. Janus was sitting up on the back of the couch, with exactly three kernels of popcorn he’d carried himself and was slowly munching on. Patton was sitting on the arm of the couch, leaning back against Logan’s hand, and he had a piece of a cookie that they’d baked earlier in the day. 

He had to wait until the intermission, and would admit to not paying much attention to the first half of the musical, before he’d gotten up enough courage. 

“Hey, Lo?”

“Yes?” Logan asked, stifling a yawn. 

“Can you maybe do the thing? The hand-holdy rubby thing?” Patton’s shoulders came up, worried in spite of himself, and in spite of the fact that he knew exactly what Logan would say. 

“Of course.”

Patton nodded quickly, shying away from the hand as it moved. “But, can you maybe do it really super gently? Please?”

Logan gave him a soft smile. “That is not at all a problem.”

His hand cupped behind Patton as the intermission ended, lifting him up just slightly. 

Logan was very gentle and slow, his hand rocking Patton back and forth as his fingers moved carefully. It was way more enjoyable than Patton had even guessed, and he even had to hold back giggles once as Logan’s thumbnail dragged over his belly. But as soon as he tried pushing Logan’s fingers they moved immediately, and he never had to worry about Logan crushing him, because Logan’s grip was very loose, and he didn’t even pick Patton up any more than an inch or two. 

Patton experimented a bit with what he could get Logan to do, pushing and pulling fingers gently. (And not at all paying attention to the movie)

Then he had maneuvered himself and Logan to where Logan rubbed a finger on his head, and that felt the very best. So Patton kept pulling his finger back after he’d move it away, until finally he glanced over, gave Patton a small smile, and then just petted his head for the rest of the movie. 

And he even tested the limits after the movie, holding onto Logan’s hand when he tried to take it away, and pretending he’d fallen asleep. 

“Patton, the movie’s over.”

Patton didn’t react, or almost didn’t. A bit of a smile almost slipped out. 

Logan cupped his other hand beneath Patton, lifting him slowly and whispering. “Should I take him to bed?”

Virgil snickered quietly. “He’s just trying to get more attention.”

Logan’s little ‘oh’ was adorably confused. “Well, then… what if I set a pillow on my nightstand and you can sleep there, Patton?”

Patton opened his eyes, smile now unimpeded. “That sounds really nice. Thank you, Logan, you’re very best human I’ve ever known.”

It was hard to tell in the dark, but Logan might have even blushed. 

(I think this may be the end of Tiny Tenants. I’ve loved it the whole way!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny Tenants will be posted as its own story once all 100 prompts are filled.


	94. Cradle

  * •^*^••



**94**

**Cradle**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 92)

Virgil downed the potion, ensuring that he’d be invisible the rest of the night. 

First was sneaking into the master bedroom, which wasn’t even as hard as he’d guessed, and pouring one potion carefully over the woman’s hair, the second poured out along the man’s left arm. Why? He didn’t know, or care really, he was getting paid. 

The hair was easier than the arm, he nearly woke the man up, but he managed it and then slipped out of the room. Now to see if he could find that fairy. 

He peeked into several rooms, and didn’t find any signs. Perhaps they really weren’t as wealthy as he’d thought, and only had a few fairies, in which case they’d be somewhere smaller, a cabinet, or a closet. 

He wasn’t having any success, and it was dangerous to stay longer, which made him nearly give up, until he heard the faintest little dainty humming. 

He followed the sound out an open window, leading into a garden, where there was a hanging birdcage, and in the cage was the fairy, cradling a baby in his arms and bouncing slightly, humming to the baby. 

Virgil looked around the garden, noting several more birdcages at different intervals. Well, he might as well open all the doors while he was at it. 

But first things first. He opened the door to the first cage, the fairy staring at the door wide-eyed, and the baby beginning to fuss. 

But no sooner had the door been opened than an alarm went up, loud blaring sounds and yells from inside. 

Virgil grabbed the fairy, holding as carefully as he could, especially considering the baby, and ran, jumping the fence and no stopping until he was safely out of town and deep in the forest. He set the fairy down on a stump while he caught his breath, and was very surprised that the fairy didn’t fly away, but just looked all around, wings shivering with nerves, and trying to calm the crying baby. 

Virgil went a bit away from them, and laid down, wrapping up in his cloak to sleep for the rest of the night. 

He was more than a little confused to wake up to hear a tiny version of a baby crying. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and his gaze drifted to the stump, where the fairy still was, now trembling far more. 

“Shhh, it’s ok. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’ll get him to be quiet, I promise.”

Virgil was very confused, wondering if there was some spell on the fairy he’d missed, that made the poor thing stay there all night. But first was helping the baby. 

“Is he hungry?”

The fairy jumped when Virgil spoke. “P-probably.”

Virgil dug in his bag. He didn’t have much a fairy could eat. Some jerky, some old bread, and for such a little fairy it really wouldn’t work. So he turned his gaze around the forest, finally spying a little flower. He picked it, handing it over. 

“Fairies eat flowers, right?”

The fairy took the flower, but just held it, still bouncing the baby. “I-I don’t know. I don’t recognize it.”

“Well try it.”

The fairy looked like Virgil had just asked him to drink out of an unknown vial. But he still took a bite out of one of the petals. 

“It’s good,” he said quietly, still hesitating a long moment before picking a petal off and giving it to the baby, who calmed down almost as soon as he had something in his mouth. 

Things seemed to calm down then, and Virgil leaned back a bit, trying to seem less threatening. “So why are you still here? Why didn’t you just… fly off, and live your life?”

The fairy’s face burned with shame. “I don’t know how.” He mumbled. 

Virgil thought about that for a long minute, trying to tread lightly. “What if I made a deal with you?”

Like most fairies, he was instantly curious. “What kind of deal?”

“Well, you said you have some magic. What if you stay with me and use that magic to help me? And in return I’ll teach you anything and everything I know to help you live on your own, and I’ll take care of you two as best as I can in the meantime. The deal ends when you’re ready to go live on your own.”

The fairy’s mouth dropped open, and very quickly he said, “Deal!” And then he smiled, his smile triumphant and mischievous, very unlike the smiles back in the room yesterday. “You forgot parts.”

Virgil was confused again. He’d made the deal, and he’d said all he had intended to. “What parts?”

The fairy listed things off of his fingers. “The time parts and the service parts and the punishment parts, and you didn’t put any ‘excepts’ in the taking care of us part!”

Virgil blinked, his stomach tying in a knot. He didn’t know  _ anything  _ about the fairy trading, that much was clear just from this. “Because I didn’t want any of that.”

The fairy was very clearly taken aback. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and finally just said, “oh.”


	95. Hide

  * •^*^••



**95**

**Hide**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 92 and 94)

Despite Virgil reassuring him several times that he didn’t intend any harm whatsoever against the fairy or his baby, the fairy kept hiding. Well, either hiding, or being conspicuously present, always with a smile plastered on his face. The baby though, Virgil rarely saw if it wasn’t late at night or early morning. He didn’t know where the fairy was putting him, especially since they were still traveling, but the baby managed to vanish much of the time. 

But the worst part by far was that he didn’t know their names. He was positive that the fairy had said his name in the room, but he couldn’t seem to remember it, and it was getting to be obvious that he’d forgotten. And yet, he didn’t want to ask. That seemed rude and awkward. And they were fairies! Surely it was nearly a threat to ask a fairy their name. 

Virgil finally breathed a sigh of relief when they reached familiar territory, but he still had to collect his payment, and he didn’t want to drag fairies around with him to do it and possibly put them in danger. So home first. 

He didn’t need much of a home, and didn’t have much. A little two-room cabin tucked away by a stream. He only really had to do one job every year to keep up enough money to live comfortably, except that he did seem to have a knack for getting himself into trouble. 

Just seeing his cabin again was a rush of comfort, and he went inside, checking to be sure everything was in the same place as where he’d left it before he poked his head back out the door. 

“This is my cabin, you’re welcome to stay here.”

The fairy smiled, but stayed perched on his fence post. 

Virgil assumed that he’d need some time to acclimate, and went back inside, unpacking and then laying on the bed, letting out a long happy sigh at being back home. 

After he’d nearly taken an unexpected nap though, he made himself get up. He had guests, after all. 

The fairy was still sitting on the fence post, but now facing away from the house, kicking his legs idly. 

“Do you want me to make you a specific place to stay? Or you can just kind of pick a spot?” Virgil asked. 

“Shouldn’t I stay out here? If I’m going to learn how to live on my own?”

Virgil nodded readily. “That’s fine too. I own the land inside the fence, so you can feel free to build whatever you want. Or I can help if you want. No pressure, if you don’t like it, you can hang out inside tonight and try again tomorrow.”

The fairy turned around, his face determined and almost fierce, but his eyes teary. “I don’t understand you.”

Virgil’s calm evaporated. “I’m… sorry?”

The fairy was frowning now, but the kind of frown people would get if they were trying not to cry. “You were— you were really mean at the start. And you bribed me with cake. And then you kidnapped me, and my baby. And now you’re acting all nice. I don’t get it.”

Virgil wasn’t sure what to say. He shrugged apologetically. “I’m an ass? I mean, I try not to be, but especially when I have my mind on a job I get to be a jerk. It’s not right, I’m not trying to excuse it, and I am trying to get better. But on jobs… I tend to put my goal above my actions. I’m sorry. Really. At the start I was cruel to you and scared you on purpose, and that wasn’t right. The cake wasn’t really a bribe, though, I was just trying to make it better. Which I guess is a kind of a bribe. The kidnapping was intended as a rescue, but, until now, I hardly even considered that you might have family back there still, or anything else that would make you want to be back. So I’m sorry.”

The fairy nodded, chewing on his lip and not looking directly at Virgil. 

“Did you want to go back?” Virgil asked. “Or, I could probably break someone else out for you.”

The fairy shook his head. “No, that place was horrible.”

He looked up, sniffed and rubbed his face, and then took a deep breath. “I think I’d like to stay inside tonight, and have your help to make an outside home tomorrow.”

Virgil nodded, his lips quirking up in a half-smile. “Yeah, that works. 


	96. Hang

  * •^*^••



**96**

**Hang**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 46, 53, 54, 55, 60, 62, 66, 67, and 68)

(When Shadows Bloom)

  
  


Virgil was watching Remus, who was hanging upside down from a tree just outside Roman’s house. Virgil himself wasn’t really allowed out. No one was keeping him in, but to keep the peace, and for Patton’s peace of mind, he was staying inside. 

Until he caught the sight of Roman’s horse in the distance, and the slightest thrill of magic ran down his spine. It was Logan, Logan was there, and had called his name, and Virgil didn’t think for a second about the rules, rushing out of the house and sprinting towards Roman. 

Halfway there there was a tiny thump against his chest. Logan had flown just as fast as Virgil had been running, and they’d almost run right past each other. 

Virgil made them invisible and then dropped to the ground, holding Logan tight against him and pouring out all the intense worry he’d had in a sudden downpouring of tears. 

“Logan, I was so scared for you! And I couldn’t get to you! And I know it wasn’t your fault, but you can’t leave me like that again!”

To Virgil's surprise, Logan let out a sob, clinging tighter to him. Logan never cried. And he certainly wasn’t clingy. 

“Are you ok?” Virgil asked, pulling him away just long enough to scan his body and be sure he wasn’t hurt. 

Logan just shook his head, for once in a long while not saying anything in response. Virgil hugged him close again, more careful of his wings this time, and neither of them moved until they were done crying. 

“I thought…” Logan finally said, his voice hoarse. “I thought, when you couldn’t get me back and you left, I thought you might not be coming back. I-I didn’t believe Roman, either. I shouldn’t have doubted you, Virgil, I’m sorry.”

Virgil hugged him probably too tightly. “It’s alright. You were scared. And… you weren’t the only one that did dumb things.”

Logan’s head popped up, his familiar ‘what have you managed to do now?!’ concern written all over his face. “What happened?”

So Virgil told him about how they’d entered the town, and about the deal he’d made with Roman. 

Logan fumed. “I  _ knew  _ he didn’t do it out of some kind of charity!”

“It’ll be alright,” Virgil promised, bringing up his crooked smile. “I don’t think he’d want to kill me anymore. And Patton kind of likes me, so… it can’t be too bad.”

Logan still frowned. He flew up directly in front of Virgil’s face to smack his forehead. “How many times do I have to tell you? You are worth more than this! You trade away yourself way too easily.”

Virgil smiled, the rebuke very familiar. “You’ll help me get through it though.”

“Of course I will! But you have to stop making deals like this!” 

“Does this mean you’re all done crying now?” Remus asked bluntly, making them both turn to see him sitting nearby. 

Virgil snorted, and then fell into laughter, dropping his invisibility and grabbing Remus into the group hug. 


	97. Desperation

  * •^*^••



**97**

**Desperation**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 65 and 75)

(Songbird)

Janus snarled, thrashing violently, and uselessly. His desperation grew the closer and closer they got to the castle walls, and thought he knew he was done for as they passed under the gate, he still swore and squirmed and bit, doing everything in his power to at least get dropped where he could run away. 

And then he was rolled up tightly in a cloth, covering even his face, which made it difficult to breathe, let alone yell any more. 

There was a hush, before they passed through yet another door. 

“Your majesty, we’ve brought a gift as a show of good will from our Lord.”

“What is it?”

Janus was suddenly dumped out on the table, the spinning of the cloth leaving him too dizzy to get his bearings. 

“Oh, another of those. I already have one.”

“I’m sure you’ll find they’re quite unique, Sire, no one is the same as another.”

“Hmph. Well, what can it do?”

“Uhh, do, Sire?”

“You heard me. The one I have is useless for everything but singing.”

Janus finally cleared his vision, and saw another small person in a cage beside the king, looking rather wilted.

“I’m not doing anything for a pompous braggart like you!” Janus yelled, trying to get to his feet, and swaying.

“What, it’s not even trained at all?” the king said, clearly annoyed.

“Trained,” Janus scoffed. “You could sooner train the wind.”

And then he sprinted for the edge of the table. 

There was a loud commotion, and he ended up squished under something soft like a pillow. He was then maneuvered into a cage, where the other tiny person was standing on the other side, looking at Janus as if he might spring at him. Janus just turned to the guard currently carrying them away, spitting out more curses.


	98. Power

  * •^*^••



**98**

**Power**

  * •^*^••



(The angsty one. The tinies are little avians.)

Virgil learned pretty quickly that he had no power in this dynamic. On his first attempt to fly away his wings had been clipped back so far he couldn’t so much as glide anymore, and on his second escape attempt they’d been tied down so tightly it was nearly painful, and left that way for the next week, leaving him with less balance and a continual soreness that grew into pain on the second day. He’d tried getting whatever they’d been tied with undone, but it hadn’t budged for him. 

He’d only had his wings free for three days now, and was sitting quietly in his ‘house’, which both he and his ‘owner’ knew was just a glorified cage, stretching carefully and massaging the sore muscles. 

There was a sharp whistle, and Virgil jumped to his feet, darting out of the house and standing where his ‘owner’ was pointing. He was panting slightly, his whole body trembling as adrenaline coursed through him. But his ‘owner’ didn’t seem to notice, pulling out a carrier. 

‘No. Please don’t say we’re going somewhere!’ Virgil thought.

But as the carrier was moved, Virgil heard a rustling like feathers, and as it was set down, he could see another avian inside. As soon as the door was open he was skipping out of the cage, smiling brightly, his long white feathers shining, and making Virgil’s wings ache with jealousy. 

“Hello!” He said cheerfully. 

“See, Virgil, this is what I expect from you,” his ‘owner’ said. “If you’d just behave I wouldn’t have to be so harsh with you.”

A shudder ran down his spine as he nodded silently, his mouth going dry. 

“Now you show Patton your house, and Patton, you show him how a pet ought to act. And don’t either of you think about being rude to each other. That will  _ not _ be tolerated.”

“Alright!” Patton said brightly, smiling and waved as their ‘owner’ walked away. 

Virgil wrapped his arms around his middle, walking towards the house silently. They must make a funny picture, Patton with his rosy cheeks and soft clothes and his large, absolutely gorgeous wings, next to Virgil who knew he looked bedraggled, especially with his dark wings shorn so short.


	99. Betrayal

  * •^*^••



**99**

**Betrayal**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 98)

Virgil didn’t say a word until he was sure that their ‘owner’ was gone. 

“Are you… I mean, you look alright, but…”

“I’m fine!” Patton said cheerily, bouncing up on his toes a bit. 

It grated. 

“You don’t have to keep doing that while he’s gone, I won’t tell,” Virgil said, sitting down on the tiny beanbag and curling in on himself. 

The briefest flicker of a profound fear crossed Patton’s face, but he just smiled again. “This is just me! I’m happy and bouncy and bubbly.”

Virgil shrugged. “Well, the house is yours. I have a room upstairs on the right, but you can pick any of the others.”

“Alright!” Patton said, his wings fluttering to carry him up instead of climbing the stairs. 

Virgil’s wings ached. The muscles had to move differently, to move the different weight, especially with the longest feathers shorn off. The ends of his wings had been the heaviest part, and now they were the lightest. He was almost scared to adjust, for fear that he wouldn’t be able to go back and fly properly when his feathers finally grew back. 

He pulled at one wing, stretching it out as far as it would go and then kneading at the muscles with his hands. 

There was a rustle and a thump from upstairs, followed by a cheery, if slightly strained, “I’m fine!”

Their ‘owner’ didn’t come back in at all that day, which Virgil was perfectly fine with. Once it was good and dark, he climbed up onto the roof, and looked out of the large window up at the stars. It was one of the few reliefs he still had. Something about just watching them managed to calm him down enough that he could actually sleep. 

A soft rustle alerted him to Patton’s presence. 

“If we could find a way to open the window, would you help get me down to the ground outside?” Virgil said, his voice all soft and wistful. 

“No.” Patton said, his voice deep and bitter. “You can’t talk like that.”

“We’re alone, I can talk how I like.”

“No, you can’t.”

Virgil turned, and saw a dark frown on Patton’s face. “Why not?”

Patton looked him in the eyes. “It’s  _ always  _ worse. If they don’t find out now they’ll find out later, and it’ll be much worse.”

Virgil’s jaw tightened. “If there’s just us two here, they won’t find out.”

It was plain in Patton’s face. He would tell. The betrayal, planned so easily, cut deep. Virgil looked away. 

“Please don’t tell.”

There was silence. 

The trembling started at his fingertips, and Virgil clenched his hands into fists. “I won’t say it anymore, can’t you just pretend you never heard it?”

Patton shook his head. 

Virgil pressed his fists over his eyes, struggling to keep his breath even. 

“If I’m not asked, I won’t say anything. That’s the best I can promise.”

Something between a bitter laugh and a sob clawed it’s way out of Virgil’s throat, and he ran back to his room, leaning against the door in case Patton tried to get in. 


	100. Tiny

  * •^*^••



**100**

**Tiny**

  * •^*^••



(Continued from 1, 40, and 41)

(The Giant Friend)

Logan still didn’t know how Patton was his friend. The tiny human was so cheerful, and lively, and yet he’d picked Logan to be his friend. And with all he did, it seemed Logan would never, ever be able to repay him. 

His plants somehow grew so huge and so well that Logan was never hungry anymore. And the mountain had been nearly taken over by Patton. Sometimes Logan thought Patton was just that good at moving around quickly, but sometimes he could’ve sworn that the plants moved and helped Patton to move all around the mountain. 

And then there was his company. At this moment, Patton was asleep on his chest, Logan’s hand serving as a blanket, snoring softly. Logan felt so  _ full.  _

He wasn’t sure if this was love, or rather, what type of love this was, but a smile from Patton never failed to thrill him, and one of the tiny hugs would make his heart figuratively swell. 

He’d never known how happy it was possible to be, and it was entirely overwhelming in the most pleasant way. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the final votes!
> 
> Votes:
> 
> Tiny Tenants: 11
> 
> When Shadows Bloom: 9
> 
> Tiny Artists: 9
> 
> Tiny Naga Janus: 1
> 
> 7+82: 1
> 
> Aquarius: 2
> 
> Songbird: 1
> 
> 92: 2

**Author's Note:**

> When I’m finished with the entire prompt list, I’ll post the best two or three arcs as stories on their own, and finish them off if they aren’t done.


End file.
